Heartland Highschool Host Club
by Charolette Ink
Summary: Kotori Mizuki is an honors student at the prestigious Heartland Academy. Kotori thinks everything at Heartland Academy will just be like any school. But that was before the Host Club came into the honors' student life.
1. Chapter 1

"I thought libraries were suppose to be a place of studying, not a social gathering," Kotori Mizuki muttered. You'd think an academy with four libraries would have some quiet place to study. Sighing, the honors student decided to look elsewhere for a place to study.

"A quiet place to study is apparently too much for a school like this," Kotori said and continued to walk through the school for a good place to study. The honors student passed a window and looked out into the blue sky outside. _How are you doing up in heaven Mom? It's hard to believe ten years have passed since that day._

Kotori found an abandoned music. Deciding there wouldn't be any other place to study in peace, Kotori opened the door. What Kotori didn't know was that Music Room #3 wasn't so abandon. When the door opened, the honors student was greeted by the beautiful fragrance of roses and _them._

"Welcome." It was…the Host Club.

oooooo

Students accepted to the elite Heartland Academy were those with excellent social standings and filthy rich families. The Heartland Host Club were a group of the academy's most outstanding (and handsomest) male duelist with too much time on their hands entertain young ladies also with terribly too much time on their hands. The Host Club always saw their music room as a dueling arena for the super rich and beautiful.

Kotori was pressed up against the door in shock and surveyed the boys in the room. By the left was a small boy with blue hair and eyes of glittering gold. He held a stuffed dragon in his arms. Behind him was a much taller boy with blonde hair that pointed upwards and black bangs. Standing behind a chair was a boy was purple hair. Kotori thought it looked like an octopus. Over by the right were two boys Kotori recognized from class. They were twins. The one had a scar down the left side of his face. His wild hair was split into two sections. The front was blonde while the back was maroon. The other boy had a sweet face that contrasted with his brother's mischievous face. His pink hair contrasted with his kind, emerald green eyes.

Finally, there was the boy in the middle. He sat on the chair in front of the purple haired boy. Chair boy's sparkling red eyes looked straight at Kotori. The boy's dark hair stuck up in two spikes on each side with two red spike-like bangs pointed upwards and slightly to the left.

"Look at that, it's a boy," the twins said together.

"That's interesting," the purple haired boy commented. "III, IV, isn't he in your class.

"Yeah," the answered in unison. "But he's shy and doesn't talk that much. We don't know anything about him."

The boy smirked.

ooooOo

"That's too bad," he said. "If you knew something we could've at least had an idea of who he'd like to spend some time with." He looked away from the twins and toward Kotori, who was attempting to escape the Host Club. However, he couldn't seem to open the door. "Welcome to the Host Club, Mr. Honors Student."

The boy in the chair stood up and stared at Kotori, who was still struggling with the door. "Whoa, so you're Mizuki Kotori! You're the one who got here with your awesome grades!"

Kotori stopped fiddling with the door and glanced back and the boy. "How do you know my name?" he asked nervously.

"You're quite infamous around here. There's never been a commoner at our academy," the purple haired boy explained. Kotori's eyebrow began to twitch at the word 'commoner'. "You have quite an audacious nerve to fight your way into this academy as an honor student."

"Um, thanks?" Kotori said.

"You're welcome!" The chair boy appeared by Kotori's side and wrapped arm around his shoulder. "You've shown everyone that even a poor person can enroll in an elite private academy, not to mention excel in class." Kotori was uncorfortable with the boy's actions and scooted to the other side of the room. The boy noticed Kotori's movements and followed. "Is it odd how others look down at you all the time? Or do you like the attention? If I was poor and had that many people looking at me I'd make sure to impress them with my dueling skills!"

"I don't duel that much," Kotori informed the boy and moved back to the doors. "Besides, I'm not as poor as you think."

Chair boy ignored what Kotori had said. "Underestimate and neglected all your life, but that doesn't matter now!" He wrapped his arm around Kotori again. "Now, I welcome you to our world of beautiful duels!"

Kotori attempted to leave again and began to walk out. "Whatever."

"Wait Tori-chan!" the small boy ran up to Kotori and grabbed his arm. "Are you like a super hero? Maybe you should duel Kaito! He's like a super duelist!"

"I'm not a super hero. I just get good grades." Kotori paused. Why did this kid call her Tori_-chan _? "What's with the _chan_!" he shouted. "We just met and I'm older than you!"

The little boy ran back to the blonde haired boy who Kotori presumed to be Kaito. The honors student breathed heavily a few times. He wasn't sure if it was the yelling that had him out of breath or if it was the fact that he was still in this music room and not studying somewhere quiet.

"Ya' know, I don't think anyone has ever been this openly gay at school," Chair boy wondered aloud.

Kotori gave him a look. "What does he mean by that?"

"I guess it doesn't matter." The boy looked up at Kotori. "So, what kind of guys are you into? The strong, silent type?" He gestured to the one Kotori thought was Kaito. "The boy Lolita?" His hand moved toward the small boy. The small boy looked up at Kotori by the cue given by Chair boy with a stuffed dragon in arm. "Maybe you're looking for more of the mischievous type." Chair boy signaled toward the twins who gave Kotori a sly smile. "Or perhaps the cool type?" He pointed to the purple haired boy.

Kotori began to panic. What was this place? Was it some kind of male harem? Were they trying to gain something? "N-no, you've got it all wrong!" he insisted. "I was just looking for some quiet place so I could study!"

Yuma strode toward the nervous honors student and drew his fingers from the back of Kotori's jaw to her chin. Kotori gaped as the boy's firey red eyes stared lovingly into his own glasses-cover, hazel eyes. "Or maybe you're into a guy like me? What do you think?"

Kotori's heart felt like a drum role. Was this just nerves or was it something more? Kotori didn't know how to respond, but he did know that he needed to get away from this guy. He jumped back to get away from the boy. The honors student felt that he bumped into something. He looked back to see he knocked over a podium and the expensive looking vase that was sitting on top of it. Kotori knew there was no way he could _ever_ pay off that if it broke. He turned around to try and catch the vase. It was just in his finger tips, but it narrowly escaped and shattered on the ground. Using the podium to support himself, Kotori stared at the shards of vase in horror.

The twins looked over Kotori's shoulder. IV, the one with the scar, spoke. "It looks like we won't be auctioning that vase. Nice one commoner."

"Well there goes eight million yen," the pink haired twin, III, said dejectedly.

"Eight m-million yen!" Kotori shouted. He slumped his head down and tried to calculate. "How many thousand yen is that? How many thousands are even in a million?" Kotori knew the vase had to have had an impressive price tag on it, but he didn't expect it to be eight million yen! Kotori nervously looked back at the Host Club. "I'll, um, have to pay you guys back."

"Like you can do that. Can you even afford a school uniform?" the twins said, going back to their unison style of speech. They examined Kotori's sloppy outfit. How could anyone even think about paying off that vase with those worn black jeans, scuffed black shoes, oversized brown sweater, and that white shirt that wasn't even tucked in? Not to mention that Kotori's short green hair didn't even looked brushed.

Kotori knew they were right. Kotori knew that spending the money needed for the rent on the first year's uniform -consisting of black pants, shoes, a white shirt, a ruby red blazer and a dark red tie- wouldn't be a smart idea. He thought he'd save up some extra money throughout high school and buy a uniform during his third year, if he was lucky. Out of all of the uniform colors, the third year's blue was defiantly the best.

The purple haired boy, in a second year emerald green blazer, picked up a shard from the ruined vase. "Yuma, what should we do with our honors student?"

Yuma sat back down in his chair. "Well Mizuki, I guess you only have one way out of this." His tone was now serious as if he proposing something for business. The only difference between now and business was that Kotori had no room for negotiation. "Since you don't have the money I suppose you'll have to pay with your body. Starting today, you'll be the Host Club dog."

Kotori stood still with shock on her face. _I don't know if I can handle this, Mom._ _I've been kidnapped by a bunch of boys who call themselves a Host Club!_

The members of the Host Club stood around Kotori. "Since you'll be our dog, it's best if you know all of our names," the purple haired boy said. "I am Kamishiro Ryoga, second year. Though, I'm sure you could've been able to tell that by the uniform." The boy smiled at Kotori. There was something in that smile Kotori didn't like about that smile though. "I'm sure you already know III and IV since they're in your class. Over here is-"

"Yeah, yeah, introduce the rest of them later," Yuma interrupted. "Right now we need to set up for our guests. They'll be here soon!"

"Why do we have to do it?" IV complained.

"We could just have our new servant start repaying his debt now," III offered.

"Actually I need him to go and run a few errands. We're kinda low on some supplies," Yuma said. "Since Kotori has a debt to pay off, it's better if he collects the supplies rather than one of our servants, right?"

Kotori's eyebrow twitched. It was going to be a long time before his debt would be paid off. Yuma handed Kotori a list off supplies. Once the honors student left, the Host Club began to set up the room.

The large pink tiled room was nicely set up with tables and couches. The majority the two person tables were along the wall of windows so the guests would have a nice view, but there were still a few tables set throughout the room. In the room were four white columns that were spread out. When you entered the room you wouldn't see any furniture in the large space between these columns. Between the two columns on the left and the two on the right were two couches that faced each other. The backs of the two inner couches faced each other, creating a sense of symmetry in the room. In the center of the two couches was an oval shaped table as long as the couches.

The Host Club boys placed a bouquet of red roses in a white vase on each table. The boys proceeded to set the china for hot chocolate. The finishing touch was two plates of sweets positioned on either side of the vase of roses.

Yuma smiled and took a seat on a couch. "The Host Club is now open for business!" He announced. Ryoga opened the door to the Host Club and girls flocked in. They all sat themselves at specific tables as if they were assigned there. The remainder of the Hosts sat with smile and pleased their guests through conversation.

"Yuma, I think I've made some great new strategies. Maybe we could duel sometime soon!" A girl an emerald green dress said hopefully.

Yuma gave the girl a wide smile. "Of course! In fact, we could duel right now!"

"Really!" the girl squealed. The three girls sitting across from almost swooned with delight.

"Yuma," said the girl on Yuma's other side. She too wore a second year's emerald green dress. "Before you duel, is it true that the Host Club has a new little kitten running around here-nya?"

"Well I guess you could say that," Yuma answered. He looked over to the girl and caught a glimpse of the person in question. "Well there he is! Did you get everything we needed my little bird?"

Kotori grumbled. _Little bird?_ _I've been in this club not even for a day and I already can't stand these damn rich people,_ Kotori thought. The honors student handed Yuma the bag. The wealthy boy immediately began to rummage through the bag as if he were looking for something. The first thing Yuma pulled out was the hot chocolate mix.

"What's this? I don't think I've seen this kind of hot chocolate before," Yuma said. The girls around Yuma leaned in for a better look at the plastic container.

"That's just some hot chocolate mix. You just add water," Kotori explained.

"Oh, so this is commoner hot chocolate!" Yuma told the girls. "It's already all ground up because commoners need their food done fast, right?"

"I guess," Kotori mumbled. "If you don't like it I'll go get the hot chocolate you guys are used to."

Before Kotori could move, Yuma grabbed her by the arm. He dragged Kotori over to a table and set up a few cups. "Hey girls! Come over here if you wanna see how commoners make hot chocolate!"

Kotori sighed and took the instant hot chocolate container out of Yuma's hands. Kotori removed the lid from the container as Yuma and girls in red, green, and blue dresses watched in awe. The honors student dropped a spoonful of the mix into each of the cups. He then poured water into the cups as the wealthy students clapped for the demonstration.

Kotori felt his eyebrow twitch. _What is it with these damn rich people?_

A few girls picked up the cups and eyed the liquid suspiciously. They seemed unsure if it was safe to drink the commoner hot chocolate.

Yuma seemed to notice and took one of the girls in her arms. "Now what's wrong? There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this hot chocolate," he softly told her in a caring tone.

The girl seemed taken back. "It's just, I don't know if my parents would approve of me drinking this."

Yuma drew his lips close to the girl's ear and whispered into it. "What if I let you drink as Gagaga Magician served it to you?"

"Then I guess it would be okay!" the girl squealed. The others shrieked at the display as if the hologram could really hold a cup.

"Now Yuma," a girl spoke up. "I really think you've taken this joke too far-nya. Do you think the people who go to this school have the pallet to stomach that crap?"

Yuma didn't hear his guest, but Kotori did. He looked over and studied the girl. She was a second year student with grey hair and thick framed glasses. The part Kotori found odd about this girl was the fact that she had two pieces of her hair stick up like cat ears. The girl noticed that Kotori had heard her. "Oh, I'm sorry. I was just talking to myself."

Kotori paid no further attention to this group of fangirls as they watched Yuma attempt to have his monster hold a cup. Kotori passed a table with the twins and two girls. The girls began to shriek as IV apologized to III. IV held his pink haired brother's face and looked in his eyes sympathetically. It looked like they were going to kiss. Kotori rolled her eyes at the girls. What was wrong with them?

Kotori noticed two of the older students enter the room. It was the third year named Kaito with that little boy in the third year's sapphire blue uniform on his back. The two went to a couch where a group of girls waited for them.

"Sorry we're late," the little boy said. "I just got really tired from setting up and fell asleep." Kaito put the little boy down between two girls and took a seat on the other couch. The little boy yawned. "I don't think I'm awake just quite yet."

The girls looked at the little boy as if he was a baby panda. "So cute!" they said.

Kotori watched the display from afar. "Is he really a third year student?" she wondered aloud.

"Haruto-senpai is very young, but he's a prodigy." Kotori looked back to see Ryoga standing behind her. He was holding a slim book probably filled with budget plans for the Host Club. "He skipped a lot of grades just so his older brother Kaito could always look after him. Kaito makes sure to stay close to Haruto as his strong and silent body guard."

Kotori looked at Ryoga. He was unsure how to respond, but that feeling didn't last too long. Haruto seemed to snap out of his tired daze from earlier and swung Kotori around. "Tori-chan!" the young boy cheered. "Would you like to come over and have some caramel with me?"

Kotori, still dizzy from earlier, distractedly responded, "Thanks, but I don't feel like eating caramel right now."

The boy looked at Kotori sweetly. "Then would you like to hold my dragon, Galaxy-chan?" The boy pulled out his stuffed dragon from behind his back.

"You know, I don't really like dragons all that much," Kotori said.

Haruto looked at Kotori with a sad expression. "But don't you like Galaxy-chan?"

Kotori gave the stuffed dragon a second look. He was able to focus more now that he fully regained his balance. "Well, it is pretty cute."

Haruto looked up at Kotori with a blank look.

oOooOo

"Take good care of him!" Haruto said and to Kotori and hopped back to his ladies.

"Just so you know, our club uses each man's abilities to please each lady accordingly," Ryoga began to explain. "For the record, Yuma is our king, or, as he prefers, Duel Champion. I personally think he's in over his head if he thinks he's the best duelist in this club. To pay off your debt you'll be the Heartland Host Club's dog until you graduate." Ryoga paused and gave that smile- no, simper- to Kotori saw earlier. "I mean you'll be acting as our servant until you've accumulated enough hours to pay off that eight million yen debt. If you want you can try to run away, but just so you know my family has over one hundred police officers employed." Kotori looked at Ryoga in shock. "I'm guessing you don't have a passport, right?"

Kotori knew what Ryoga really meant. If he tried to flee to another country to escape the debt it wouldn't work. Kotori was stuck in Japan until the end of high school, or longer.

Yuma strolled over to Kotori and spoke in his ear. "You'll be working very hard to pay off your debt, my little bird." He blew air into Kotori's ear which made her jump a few feet away. "Since you're working with us you should work on your appearance some more. With the way you look now, girls won't even look twice at you."

"You know, I'm not trying to impress girls," Kotori informed Yuma. "I'm here to study. Besides," Kotori began to speak in a dreamy tone. "it doesn't matter how you look on the outside. It's the beauty you have within that makes someone truly stand out."

"It's not so often that someone like as perfect as me comes around," Yuma said, ignoring Kotori's opinion. The Host Club King began to waltz around the room with a speech for Kotori. "Besides, why do you think artists at Industrial Illusions make the card art appealing? It's so everyone can have a little more beauty in their life."

Kotori zoned out as Yuma explained his views on beauty and how to be a gentleman. _There's a word for people like him,_ Kotori thought. _Arrogant? Kind of, but that's not what I'm looking for. What's that word? I just can't think of it right now._

Yuma stood by Kotori's side and gave him a look filled with interest. "And it's always important to remember what a glance can do to someone."

"Annoying! That's it!" Kotori thought aloud.

Yuma face went into shocked. He depressed sat in the corner in the room in a fetal position. The twins laughed at their senpai. "Nice one," IV told Kotori.

"I'm sorry Yuma-senpai," Kotori said. _But he is a bit arrogant,_ he thought. "Sorry Yuma-senpai, but I'll admit that you're speech did speak out to me just a bit."

Yuma rose from in position and smiled. He moved closer to Kotori. "In that case let me tell you all I know!" he declared and reached out a hand toward the honors student. "I will teach how to be a gentleman just like me."

III and IV stood in front of Kotori. "I think he's look better if we just look these off," III suggested and removed Kotori's glasses. He and his brother looked at Kotori in shock.

"Hey, I need those!" Kotori said and reached out to try and find his glasses. "I had contacts, but I managed to lose them on the first day of school."

The twins still looked at Kotori in awe. Yuma stormed up from behind the twins and pushed them aside. He gazed at the new Kotori in awe. Without those bulky glasses in the way Kotori's face was very elegant. You could see the skin was perfectly flawless and appeared to be very smooth. Even Kotori's eyes seemed to sparkle like the sun reflecting off water without those glasses.

Yuma snapped his fingers. "III! IV! Uniform!" The twins saluted to and they each took one of Kotori's arms. They dragged him out of the door to another room. "Shark, my stylist!" Ryoga pulled out his D-Gazer and began the call. "Kaito, go get some contacts!" The older boy nodded and ran off to find Kotori's prescription.

"What about me?" Haruto asked with pleading eyes.

"Haruto-senpai, you can go have some caramel," Yuma said.

Haruto went over to a table and sat down with his stuffed dragon in the other chair. The young boy slumped down in his chair in depression. "I wanna help too," Haruto mumbled and unwrapped a piece of caramel.

The twins brought Kotori in the room connected to the Host Club. It so happened to be a changing room. III and IV shoved Kotori into one of the changing stalls and presented a uniform. With a closer inspection, Kotori could see the blazer had a patch with Heartland Academy's crest on the chest. The crest was a fancy white H the sat on a black background with an intricate gold frame.

III and IV gave Kotori the outfit. "You need to put this on," they told him.

"Fine," Kotori said. "But you need to get out!" Kotori shoved III and IV out of the stall. The two almost fell, but used each other for support. Once they regained their balance, III and IV looked at each other to make sure they were thinking the same thing.

oOOOOo

Kotori changed into the uniform. Before he could leave, a stylist came into the stall and set up. Kotori didn't even have a chance to object. Once his hair was done, Kotori noticed there was a case of contacts. Guessing they were for him, the honors student opened one side of the case and slipped one contact and then the other.

The Host Club sat outside the stall Kotori was in and waited for him. They were all anxious to see if the transformation was a success.

"Hey Kotori! Hurry up!" IV called out.

A few seconds after IV placed his demand Kotori emerged from the changing stall. The Host Club was impressed by the honors student new appearance. Kotori wore a first year uniform. His hair was parted to the left. Now you could see that Kotori's bangs were a light green while the rest of his hair was a much darker shade of the same color. For the cherry on top, Kotori's glasses were gone which allowed a pair of hazel eyes sparkle.

"Perfect!" Yuma cried on the verge of tears. "You look great!" The Host Club King collected himself and made an announcement. "As of today, you are officially a host! In order for you to pay off your debt, you'll have to be requested by one hundred customers!"

The Host Club exited the changing room and returned to their room. Yuma sat Kotori down at a table with three other girls. The table was close to the couch Yuma sat on so he could keep an eye on the new host.

The girls sitting with Kotori were impressed by the boy's appearance. "Wow Kotori, you look great!" one said.

"What product do you use on your hair to make it look like that?" another girl asked.

"Could you tell us something about yourself?" the last girl questioned.

Kotori suppressed the emotions that wanted to rise to his face, though he couldn't help the fact that his eyebrow was twitching. _All I have to do is get one hundred girls to request me, right?_ Kotori let out a sigh to relax his face. _If that's the case, I have to perfect story that'll have these kind of girls flocking to me._

Kotori began his story. He told the girls about his mother and how she passes away due to an illness. The girls looked like they were going to cry by end of the story.

"Who cooks and cleans now that your mom is gone?" the one girl asked with tears in her voice.

"I do," Kotori answered. "My mom taught me how to cook before she passed away. There are a lot of recipe books around the house, so there are plenty of different things I get to try out. I always find it rewarding when I can recreate the dishes, especially when my dad asks for seconds. My dad and I have had it kind of rough for a while, but we've been making out just fine."

"It's so sad!" the girls cried. "Is it okay if we request you for tomorrow?"

Kotori smiled at the girls. "Of course. I'd be glad to see you all again tomorrow!"

Yuma watched Kotori's first attempt at hosting. "How is he already this good?"

"He's a natural," Ryoga told him. "No training needed.

"Yuma, have you forgotten about me?" the gray haired girl next to Yuma asked.

Yuma turned around with grace and sweetly gazed at his guest. "Of course not, Cat-chan. I was just checking up on our new host Kotori incase he needed some help. He's doing quite fine, though. In fact…" Yuma snapped his finger. "Hey Kotori! Could you come over here?"

Kotori excused himself from his guests and walked over to Yuma. "I have someone I'd like you to meet," Yuma said. Kotori recognized the Yuma's guest to be the same girl from earlier. "This is my favorite guest, Cathy."

Kotori ignored the fact that he already disliked this girl's personality and smiled. "It's very nice to meet you Miss Cathy."

Yuma flinched by the Kotori's presentation. It was just so beautiful! The King quickly recovered and embraced Kotori with a suffocating hug."That was perfect! Absolutely breathe taking! It was just darling the way you smiled!"

Kotori failed around and Yuma suffocate him. The honors student spotted Kaito from a distance. "Kaito-senpai!" he called out. "Please help me!"

Kaito heard Kotori and dashed over to save him. Kaito swept the honors student our of Yuma's grasp and, for the first time, got a good look at the boy.

OOOOOo

Kaito held Kotori in the air for a while. Yuma began to nervously chuckle. "Um, senpai, I think you can let him down now," Yuma said.

Kaito lowered Kotori to the ground. As soon as Kotori's feet touched down to the surface Yuma tried to hug the honors student again as an apology. Cathy glared over to Yuma and Kotori as they began to argue. Wasn't she suppose to be Yuma's favorite? Deciding this would take a while, Cathy left the club and would come back later. Hopefully Yuma would have time for her then.

Kotori managed to get away from Yuma without a hug. At the moment, there were no customers for him. Kotori glanced over to where he left his bag to see that it wasn't there. He panicked. Since he planned to go shopping after school he brought all of the food money, which was in the bag. If that was lost, then Kotori and his father would be stuck with whatever was left in the house and Kotori knew that wasn't much.

Kotori dashed out of the Host Club to look for his bag. As he ran down the hall with the windows Kotori caught a glimpse of something in the fountain. _How did my bag get there? I didn't think there were any bullies in this school,_ Kotori thought. He sighed and began to run down to the fountain. Kotori passed a girl while he ran for his bag. He recognized the girl to be Cathy. Kotori had a feeling she was responsible for throwing her bag in the fountain.

The honors student dashed outside and found the fountain all of her books were in. Kotori sighed and rolled up his pant legs and the sleeves of the blazer and shirt. He took off his shoes and then walked into the water and rescued his soaked belongings. Kotori left it all of the books and his bag in the sunlight to dry. He went back into the fountain one last time to salvage his wallet. The wallet was crucial to find. There was barely any cash at home since the rent had been paid yesterday. If Kotori couldn't find his wallet, he'd have to take the money stored away for emergencies.

"Hey Kotori." The boy turned around to see Yuma standing in front of the fountain. "Why'd you run out of the club? You have a guest waiting you know."

"Sorry Yuma-senpai," Kotori said. "I just couldn't find my bag. I went to go look and I saw it out of the window."

Kotori went back to search of his wallet. Yuma looked over to the side of the fountain to see all of Kotori's belongings. He took off his shoes and began to roll up his pants. "How did your bag end up in the fountain in the first place?"

Kotori shrugged. "I guess it must've fallen out of the window at some point." Kotori stopped searching when he heard a disruption in the water. Yuma was helping him look for his wallet. "You don't have to help me, senpai."

Yuma refused the invitation. "It's fine. Besides, people say I'm soaked with awesome dueling skills." Yuma let out a half-hearted chuckle. He then found something in the water and pulled it out. "Kotori, is this what you're looking for?"

Kotori looked up and saw his wallet. He smiled. "Thanks senpai."

Kotori placed all of his damp belongings back into his bag. He'd let them dry out once this long day was over. After that, Kotori and Yuma walked back to Music Room #3.

"There you two are," Ryoga said as the two entered. "You weren't getting to know each other too well while you were gone, were you?"

Kotori turned bright red and almost yelled at Ryoga for his comment. Yuma got to him first, though. "Come on Shark," he said in much kinder tone than Kotori planned on using. "I just met the guy and besides-"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever your excuse is it can wait," Ryoga interrupted. "You both have guests right now. It would be best not to keep them waiting any longer."

Kotori and Yuma headed toward their guests. As always, Yuma had a handful of ladies to entertain. On the other hand, Kotori was shocked by his guest. It wasn't the fact that he had a guest but who it was.

Being kind and polite, Kotori smiled and greeted his guests. "Sorry to keep you waiting Miss Cathy. I hope you weren't sitting around for too long. I had to retrieve my bag from the fountain."

Cathy wore a mocking smile almost as if she wanted to gloat about what she did to Kotori's bag. "It's fine. I wouldn't know what I would do if my bag fell in the pond-nya," she said. "I'm guessing that's why Yuma was out as well-nya. I can't believe you made him search through that dirty fountain. You do know Yuma doesn't really have that much interest in you." Kotori flinched. "He's just trying to make you into a gentleman."

"I see now," Kotori said. He figured out why Cathy held these negative feeling toward him. "You're jealous of me."

Cathy's eyes went wide. How could this _commoner_ think that _she_ was jealous of him? This Mizuki kid was nothing but dirt like all commoners and Cathy planned to prove it. She flipped the table over and kicked Kotori's chair out from under her. Kotori fell on top of Cathy, making it look like Kotori attacked the girl.

"Kotori what are you doing?" Cathy cried out. "Help! He's trying to attack me! Someone put this commoner in his place!"

Before Cathy could shriek some more, both she and Kotori were soaked. Kotori got up to see that III and IV each dumped a pitcher of water on them. Yuma walked over to the two with a disappointed look.

"Yuma," Cathy said innocently. "I don't know what happened. Kotori… he just attacked me."

Yuma faced Cathy. He still wore that disappointed look. "I'm sorry, but Kotori is not the man who would do that kind of thing," Yuma told Cathy. She was shocked. "I bet you were the one who threw his bag in the water as well as framed him for in this occurrence. I'm going to have to ask you to leave the Host Club, Cathy."

Cathy looked like she was about to tear up. Yuma always calls her Cat-chan. "But Yuma," she whispered.

Yuma helped the girl to her feet and looked her in the eyes. "I'm sorry, but we have a certain level of maturity in our club. You may come back to the Host Club once you've found that maturity."

Cathy began to cry and ran out of the Host Club. The members of the Host Club, excluding Kotori and Yuma, smiled. They never liked that girl.

_Yuma, the guy who tried to have a hologram hold a tea cup on several occasions, gave someone a lesson on maturity. _Ryoga chuckled at the thought. He grabbed a paper bag and handed it to Kotori. "Here's a dry uniform. It's all we have, but better than a wet one, right?"

Kotori accepted the bag. "Thanks, I'm going to go change," he said and left to the changing room.

Yuma felt bad for Kotori. He didn't do anything wrong, but Cathy still set him up like that. He decided the best thing to do at the moment was to get some towels for Kotori. Once he gathered a few towels he entered the changing room. Without asking for entrance, Yuma pulled open the curtain to the stall Kotori was changing in.

"Hey Kotori, I brought you some…" He stopped his words and looked at Kotori. The honors student had taken off his blazer and shirt to reveal a pink camisole. Yuma dropped the towel in the stall and shut the curtain.

OOOOOO

The rest of the Host Club entered the room to check on Kotori. They all saw Yuma staring at the curtain with a stunned expression. It seemed that the rusted gears in Yuma's head were turning. "So Kotori," he finally spoke. "You're a girl."

Kotori came out of the changing stall with a new uniform on. This time it was the girl's first year uniform. The outfit was a long ruby red dress that reached down to Kotori's knees. A white bow was secured around the waist. The skirt had a little volume to it while the top of the dress was fitted. To cover up some skin, there was a white, long sleeved jacket that rested at the top of Kotori's stomach. To finish up the uniform were white stockings and black shoes with a small heel.

"Biologically, yes. I am a girl," Kotori answered.

Yuma stood in front of Kotori baffled. He was even making some odd noises as he gazed at Kotori.

Ryoga smirked. He knew Kotori was a girl right from the start. "You mean you didn't know Kotori was a girl?" he teased Yuma.

"It wasn't that hard to see, you know," both twins informed Yuma. III, IV, Haruto and Kaito figured out Kotori was actually a girl throughout the day.

"B-but doesn't it bother you that everyone thought you were a boy?" Yuma asked in a shock filled voice.

Kotori crossed her arms. "I honestly don't care what sex you all see me as. It's what's on the inside that counts, right? You know it could be fun having a lot of girls fuss over me." Yuma snapped out of his befuddlement. Kotori slightly turned. "Now how will I pull it off? I guess I could just call people 'dude' and 'bro' now!" She laughed at the thought and turned back to Yuma. "By the way senpai, I thought you were pretty cool earlier."

Yuma's entire face went scarlet. He put his hand over his mouth to try to hide his cheeks, but the blush was all over his face. The Host Club King was all choked up.

Ryoga smirked. _Something says this is beginning of love we're seeing here._

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

A/N: Here is chapter one of _Heartland Highschool Host Club_! I hope you all liked it! I can't believe I wrote this much in one chapter. I think it's because I had the episode to guide me through.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this anime/manga, it's called _Oran Highschool Host Club_. You don't have to know about it to read this, but if you're interest check it out! This chapter was based on episode 1.

How did you all like this? I'll continue, but it will be a while between update. This chapter took a few days to write and school is starting soon for me. I will try to get one or two more chapters up before school starts. I have no idea how busy I'll be once I get started!

Tell me how I've done so far! Till next time!


	2. Chapter 2

Kotori began to run. She was late for the Host Club. Hopefully they wouldn't mind that she got a little caught up with studying. Kotori did have to keep her grades up if she wanted to stay in Heartland Academy. It's not like she could allow herself to lose her scholarship now that she was in an eight million yen debt with the Host Club.

Kotori found the abandon music room the Host Club used for their activities. She opened the door to be greeted by a fresh wave of warm, tropical air.

"Welcome," the members of the Host Club greeted.

"You're a little late," Yuma told Kotori.

"Yeah, I know," Kotori said. "I got caught up studying. Anyway, what happened to the room? It's like a tropical paradise!"

The abandon music room was indeed a tropical paradise. Somehow, the Host Club managed to bring in an entire tropical forest complete with the native flora and fauna. There were even birds and lizards in the room! The most puzzling part of this entire venue was the trees. How did these guys manage to get full grown palm trees into the school without anyone noticing? Or was it that people did notice, but because it was for the Host Club everyone saw it as normal?

"Of course we're having a tropical paradise!" Yuma exclaimed. "Even though it's early spring, now is not the time to be huddling together under a kotatsu table! With the scenery, and our amazing heating system, our guests will be able to enjoy themselves to the absolute fullest!"

Kotori rolled her eyes. The scenery was nice and all, but it just seemed so stupid. The girls seemed to enjoy the Host Club just enough when it was set up normally.

"Do you have a problem with the way we run the Host Club, Kotori?" Ryoga asked. "With the debt you owe us, you probably shouldn't have much to say."

Kotori gulped. Would Ryoga really pile up more yen onto her debt if she disapproved of the Host Club's activities? "No, it's fine what you're doing!" the girl said nervously.

"That reminds me," said Yuma. "We spent a lot of money on you the other day with your uniform, contacts, and an appointment with my stylist." He paused and pointed at Kotori. "Your new quota to repay your debt will be one thousand customers!"

"One thousand!" Kotori repeated in disbelief.

"Not to mention that whole fiasco with Cat-chan was your fault," Yuma added.

"How was that my fault?" Kotori complained with rage.

Yuma ignored the question and left to a large table set up for the Host Club. Even with this jungle like set up, there were still plenty of pleasantries for the guests, complete with flowers, drinks, and snacks. The only other oddity in the room besides the jungle itself was a tropical themed snack bar.

Ladies began to gather into the Host Club within a few minutes. They were all fawning over the Host Club boys. With the tropical scenery, the boys decided to match it with tropical attire. Honestly, who could blame the girls from seeing a bunch of hot guys showing off some skin?

"You know, even with the outfit of a king on I just a slave to you, my goddess," Yuma affectionately told one of his guests.

Kotori rolled her eyes and gave the girls Yuma was entertaining their drinks and began to walk away. "By the way girl, the Host Club is throwing a party next week."

Kotori looked back at Yuma. _We're going to throw a party? How come I'm finding out about this just now?_

"Is it going to be a formal party?" Kotori heard a from the twins' table ask.

"Yeah," III answered. "We even rented out the largest hall in the school. It's the perfect place to dance."

"But you know III," IV softly spoke. He stood above III and put tilted the pink haired boy's head up to his. IV gazed into his brother's eyes. "I really wanted to spend some time just with you."

"I know exactly how you're feeling, IV," III responded and returned his brother's loving gaze.

The girls began squealing at the sight. Kotori rolled her eyes and continued walking. She walked over to the snack bar and put down the tray she was holding.

"The guests are really worked up today," Kotori stated.

"Showing a little skin is always popular with the ladies," Ryoga, who was standing near the snack bar, said. He was writing something down in a black book.

"So you're the one who came up with the tropical paradise theme?" Kotori question, her tone somewhat accusing.

"I have no power on what themes we chose. The only one who can with the power to do that is Yuma," Ryoga explained. "Of course there's no harm in admitting to slipping a Bali photo book onto his desk. It's not like he pays attention during class anyway."

Kotori looked away to make a face. _I knew Yuma_ _couldn't have been the brains to this operation._

Kotori decided it would be best to attend her guests now. Seconds after she sat down, the guests arrived. While they made some small talk, the group noticed an adorable display from Haruto and Kaito. Haruto had Kaito wear a lei that matched his own. The girls loved the display way too much.

"Hey Kotori, are you going to wear a tropical outfit like all of the other guys?" one girl asked. "I think you'd look real cute!"

Kotori held up her hands. "No, no! It's just I think I should be wearing early spring attire since it is early spring after all." She laughed nervously as the girls caved in with the excuse. Honestly, it was way too easy fooling these girls. Kotori wondered if the guests ever used their brains to argue if someone's excuse was valid or not. Beauty diffidently has its ups, doesn't it?

"Hey Kotori!" Yuma called out. "We do have another outfit right here." The King held out the outfit for Kotori to see. Kotori's outfit looked very similar to his own. "Wouldn't it be cool if we matched?"

"No way, senpai," Kotori said flatly. Yuma felt depressed by the girl's answer and shuffled back to his guests.

Kotori's guests fell in love with the honors student's dedication for the attire of the seasons. They began to dream of the cherry blossom flowers being in full bloom for the impending party. Kotori smiled at her guests and complimented their dreams. She was a natural at being a Host.

"Excuse me." A pink and orange haired girl in third year blue came up to Kotori's table. "I don't mean to rush you along or anything, but I think it's time for the Hosts to change guests."

Kotori looked up to the girl. "No, that's fine. You must be my next appointment, um, Miss…"

"Kozuki Anna," she answered with a smile. "You know, you are a lot cuter than I've heard." Anna tilted Kotori's head up and looked the honors student in the eye. "I think you are going to be my new favorite host."

Yuma overheard the small talk between Kotori and Anna. The King was shocked and very upset. Once all of the guests cleared out and the scenery was somehow taken care of, Yuma sat alone at a table. He was stuffing his mouth with a rice ball. Kotori was getting too good at being a host.

"Hey, Champion, would you stop eating that commoner food and get over here?" IV complained.

"Yeah, we need help planning this party. You were the one who wanted to have this party, remember?" III said. "Is it going to bother you that much that Princess Kozuki is fond of Kotori?"

The twins turned their attention back to the table they were standing by. Ryoga was busy typing away on his D-Pad, which at the moment had a holographic screen to act as a laptop. The rest of the club was just standing around idly. They had already planned out decorations and outfits for themselves (Kotori hoped that wouldn't add more debt onto what she already need to pay off). They needed Yuma for the rest of the planning.

"He didn't come over at his self-proclaimed title, well that's new," Ryoga said. "I don't even know why he's surprised. Princess Kozuki's had the disease for a while."

Kotori gave him a worried look. "Disease? What disease? Is she alright?"

"It's nothing that serious. You're making it sound like she has the plague," IV spoke. "It's the Host Hopping Disease."

"Or the Never the Same Guy Twice Disease," III clarified. "We've also been referring to the disease as the Runaway Disease. That was really inspired by Anna's deck."

"Our customers usually chose a host and see them regularly. However, Princess Kozuki tends to chose new favorites on a regular basis," Ryoga explain, not even looking up from his work.

"That's right," Haruto spoke up with his dragon in hand. "Before she chose you as a favorite, she was with Yuma-chan."

Kotori understood now and rolled her eyes. She's seen how Yuma becomes attached to his guest. "Really? He's upset because I took her from him? I didn't even do anything."

"Shut up!" Yuma yelled, storming up to the table the rest of the club was around. "I don't care about that! I just can't stand it anymore! Kotori, you need to start dressing as a girl again!" Kotori looked at Yuma confused. "I don't get it. How can someone be so popular with the girls when you are a lady yourself! You don't even duel! That's practically a requirement for this club! And no one even knows the truth of you being a girl except for the ones who are in this room!"

"That's true," IV said. "She opted out of all gym classes."

"And the attendance numbers are all mixed together," III added. "As for the dueling, it's not required in the club if you don't take a course in Dueling. Kotori's been taking Duel History instead."

Yuma growled and brought out a chest. The chest had a sticker on the side that read "Property of the Champion". Yuma rummaged through the chest and began to speak. "Now Kotori, you listen to Daddy." He pulled out a large portrait from the chest and showed it to Kotori. It was a picture of her from middle school. "Daddy wants you to go back to the way you were!"

"What the hell senpai?" Kotori yelled. "Don't go blowing up my photo without my permission!"

Yuma placed the photo on the wall and sobbed beneath it. The Host Club boys gathered around the photo in amazement. The Kotori in the picture had large green hair that parted to one side of her head and curved down toward the tip of her chin. Kotori had a bright smile in the picture and her eyes were free from the glasses she wore before she met the Host Club.

"I will be forever puzzled by the transformation from this cute middle school girl to _that_," IV said, thinking of Kotori's appearance when they first met. It was really a miracle. "How did that even happen?"

Kotori sighed. "They day before school started some kid got his gum stuck in my hair," she explained. "The gum was tangled in my hair and no one could get in out. I wasn't going to let a piece of gum just stay in my hair so I cut it all off. I didn't care if I looked like a dude."

Yuma stormed up to Kotori and began to shout. "No! You should never refer to yourself as a dude! Momma!" Yuma looked over to the rest of the club and began to pout. "Kotori is using those careless words about her appearance again."

The twins raised an eyebrow. "Anyone know who 'Momma' is?" they asked.

"Based on club position, I'd say he's referring to me, sadly," Ryoga said.

"You know I'm working as a Host so I can pay off my debt faster. I would be working for you guys for the rest of my life if I was just your errand boy," Kotori told Yuma, who seemed to be sobbing on the floor.

"Kotori, do you have even the slightest bit of experience in formal dancing?" III asked. "You'll need it for the party."

Kotori made a loud gulp. "N-no, I don't. I don't have to be at the party to reach my quota, right? I can't afford any lessons for that kind of dancing, so could I just be excused from that event?" The honors student laughed nervously and prayed that she wouldn't have to go.

Yuma stopped with his sobbing as he saw an opportunity arise. If Kotori refused to be a girl, then she'd have to be a host. Besides, Yuma wouldn't even think of allowing Kotori go back to wearing that monstrosity she had on the other day.

"No way, Kotori," Yuma said. His tone of voice was now more serious and refine unlike his usual loud, entertainingly emotional manner of speaking. "The Host Club is a group of refine boys. Since you plan to pose as a boy and be a host, you must have formal dancing experience. How far are you willing to go to stay with us?" Yuma chuckled. "As your king, I order you to master the waltz in one week and we will see your skills at the party. I you chose not to, I'll reveal to the whole school that you're actually a girl and knock you back down to our errand boy!"

Kotori had a look of fear on her face from the thought of being errand boy again. She now had no choice but to learn formal dancing. Kotori was allowed time off from hosting in order to learn some formal dancing. Luck finally came to Kotori when she came across Anna, who offered to help the honors student learn to dance.

The following day, Anna came to Music Room #3 to help Kotori with her dancing just as promised. Anna instructed Kotori on the dance steps (with a slight attitude in her voice at that). It was hard enough learning how to dance in a formal event, but the fact that Kotori was learning the male's role in the dance only seemed to make it harder. Not to mention that even though Kotori had no idea what she was doing, she and Anna seemed to fighting to take the lead of this dance.

"And Kotori," Anna continued with her lesson. "Remember to look at the lady you dance with."

"Right," Kotori replied in a flustered voice. The honors student followed Anna's instructions and looked up at her. Almost two seconds afterwards Kotori manage to trip over her own feet and fall on top of Anna. A look of shock took over Kotori's face. "Miss Kozuki, I'm so sorry about that!"

Anna gave a devilish smirk. She wrapped her arms around Kotori's neck and pulled her head down. "It's fine, Kotori."

Kotori helped Anna up and continued with the lesson. The remainder of the Host Club loitered around, unsure of what to do. There was still much to do for the party. Hosting hours were cut short for today so they could finish preparing for the party. At the moment, they were taking a break.

Yuma saw Kotori and Anna dancing. He felt a swirl of emotions rise up at the sight of the two, but Yuma couldn't describe what he was feeling. Yuma's mind rationalized that he was depressed that his "daughter" was learning to dance with someone that wasn't himself.

The twins noticed that Yuma was sitting on the ledge of the window with a gloomy look on his face. They knew something was wrong with him just by that look.

"I wonder what's wrong with him," IV said.

"He's probably jealous of Anna since she's teaching Kotori how to dance as opposed to him," III guessed. "It's not like he could anyway. Yuma's just way too tall to play the part of the girl."

Kotori and Anna finally stopped their lessons. Kotori offered a table for Anna and poured her some hot chocolate.

"Thank you very much for allowing me to practice with you," Kotori told Anna. "Though, it was more of a lesson than practice." Kotori chuckled as the memories from moments before came back into her mind.

Anna smiled. "It's no problem at all. I would have helped if I didn't try to lead, though. That's supposed to be the guy's job and all. Besides, it was fun spending all this time alone with you." Kotori's smile faltered. She wasn't sure how to respond to that. The silence between the two didn't last long, however. Anna began to speak the moment she picked up her tea cup. "Hey, isn't this tea cup Genorie?

"Genorie?" Kotori repeated.

Ryoga appeared with a small try of snacks. "What a keen eye you have," he complimented. "We actually ordered those yesterday. It was time to upgrade our tea sets."

"I see," Anna said. She gazed into the tea cup as her smile grew warm. "It's a very lovely shade of green. A beautiful color, in fact." Anna continued to stare in the tea cup. She was almost lost in the piece of china.

"So you must really be into tableware, huh?" Kotori said brightly.

In a panic, Anna quickly snapped out of her daze and put the cup back onto the table. "Not really! No, of course not! Why would you get an idea like that?" Anna began to laugh very nervously.

From his seat on the window ledge, Yuma couldn't help but notice Anna's reaction. _She obviously knows her china,_ he thought. _Anna always took time to appreciate the Host Club's choice in cups._

"Hello?" a voice said. The doors opened and a dark haired boy walked in with a package. "I'm here with the new tea cups you ordered." The door closed.

Kotori noticed that Anna flinched when the voice called out into the room. Kotori looked over to the boy carrying the box. He wasn't wearing a Heartland Academy blazer, but instead a cream colored sweater.

"Ah, thank you very much," Ryoga said to the boy. "I'm impressed with your selections as always. The tea sets always prove popular with the ladies."

"That's good to hear," the boy replied somewhat timidly.

Anna's face became sad. Kotori didn't notice and walked toward the boy to take the tea set. "I'm guessing you don't sell tea sets. That's a third year tie, right?"

The boy laughed. "Yeah, that's right."

Anna began to laugh. "Kotori, it's cute how you don't know." Anna turned around and smiled. "Then again, Yuya doesn't look much like the heir to a first-class company, now does he?"

"First class?" Kotori repeated.

"That's right," Ryoga said. "The Tsukune Trading Company sells table wear and currently has the top market share in the country."

While Ryoga educated Kotori, the honors student couldn't help but notice how Anna and Yuya looked at each other. They seem sorrowful and slightly sympathetic. The two quickly looked away from each other as if they'd done something wrong.

"That's cool," Kotori commented. She looked up at Yuya, who was now gazing to Anna. She, on the other hand, turned around to the table she was seated at.

"He has quite the eye for china, don't you Tsukune?" said Ryoga.

Yuya snapped out of his gaze and gave a shy smile. "Well, I guess. But I still have much to learn."

"Are you leaving next month to go study abroad in England?"

"Yeah, that's right," Yuya answered. He seemed upset by that fact he was leaving. "Well, I think I have to go now."

Anna kept her back turned as Yuya left the room. Yuma could see the sad look on her face the moment Ryoga brought up the fact Yuya was going to leave to study in England. Yuma walked up to the table and warmly smiled at Anna. "So, how are you enjoying the Host Club, my darling?"Anna looked up at Yuma. She wanted to say that she was enjoying herself, but she didn't want to lie.

Kotori walked back to Anna. "You and that guy really seem to know each other," she stated.

Anna jumped in her seat. "What? No, no. I mean, I barely know the guy." She rose from her seat and walked past Kotori. "Now, if you don't mind, I think I have to leave now as well."

Kotori stared at the door as Anna left. She began to wonder why Anna was acting so strangely. However, in the process of thought Haruto took the open opportunity to run up a hug Kotori from behind. The young boy jumped up onto Kotori's back as if she would give him a piggy-back ride.

"Hey Tori-chan, you were right. Miss Anna and Yuya do know each other!" Haruto informed her. "They're actually engaged!"

Kotori was shocked by the news. Yuma folded his arms and smirked. "So Shark, how long have you known about their engagement?"

Ryoga smirked back. "You always assume I know everything about everyone, don't you, Yuma?" Ryoga opened the black book he always carried around. "At least that's something safe to assume. As you know, I conduct a general research on all of our customers to provide the best service. Those two were childhood friends. Their parents arranged their marriage when they were young. I didn't see how that would benefit us, so I just disregarded it."

"I see," Yuma said. By the tone of his voice, Ryoga knew the boy was already up to some kind of odd plan.

"Tsukune Yuya," Ryoga read from his book. "Grades, outstanding. Social status, fair. Looks, okay. He's reliable though. If I had to fault him for anything it'd be-"

"He doesn't have that much presence," III said.

"He's also kinda faint hearted. Not to mention that he's kinda a crybaby," IV commented.

Ryoga closed his book. "To put simply, he's boring."

Kotori looked at the boys in surprise. She had no idea how critical they were on the other guys in the school. What standards were these guys even following?

"Tsukune has always been a good boy," Haruto added. He now sat on top of Kaito's shoulders. "And Anna's always been kinda mean to him, right?" Haruto looked down at Kaito for reassurance.

"She shows her affection in her own way," Kaito clarified.

"All right team!" Yuma announced. "As members of the Heartland Host Club it is our job to make sure that ever girl is happy! And, for this particular plot, we will also be helping out a guy in the process! Ready?"

"Yeah!" the Host Club cheered.

Yuma began a countdown. "One… Two… Three!"

"Kattobingu!" the boys cheered. Kotori gave a confused looked. What was that about?

"That's right, we never told Tori-chan about our cheer!" Haruto told the club.

"You're right Haruto-sepai!" Yuma said. "It's a catchphrase I've spread throughout the Host Club. My father taught it to me. It means to never give no matter what, always face challenges, and to always believe in yourself." Yuma smiled brightly. "We always say it before one of our missions."

"That reason is mainly because Yuma's plans always seem to be the impossible challenge no one thinks they can pull off," Ryoga added. "That is, impossible for those you don't have even the slightest trace of a Kattobingu spirit."

Kotori looked at all the guys and smiled. "In that case, Kattobingu!

*.*.*.

Tonight was the night of the party and the night of the Host Club's plan. They spent the last few days creating their plot to bring a smile to Anna and Yuya's faces. The entire club gave themselves a quick prep behind a closed door. On the other side of the door, guests from the Host Club awaited their hosts.

Yuma took a deep breath and placed on hand on the door knob. _It's time to Kattobingu!_ He opened the door and stepped out onto the small balcony like platform to over look all of the guests. On each side of the balcony there were a set of stairs. The remainder of the Host Club split up to their set of stairs. After the first flight of stairs, the Host Club stood spaced out on a second flight of stairs and smiled to their guests.

The orchestra began to play and the buzz of chatter died down. The Host Club bowed to their guests. Ryoga began to speak. "Welcome ladies to our fine party this evening. As always, the Host Club is here for your entertainment. We wish for all of you to dance to your heart's content. Based on your dancing skills, on lucky one lady will tonight's prize, a passionate kiss on the cheek from our king."

Yuma glance up at the girls and smiled. "I wish you all the best of luck tonight. And remember to have the time of your lives!"

Cheers and squeals came from the mouths of almost every girl in the room. Some girls seemed to even be swooning over the thought of having _the _Host Club King giving a kiss on the cheek to one of them.

The sight of these girls literally swooning over some guy made Kotori's eyebrow twitch. _I said I didn't want to come and I was right. What is up with all these damn rich people?_

The twins walked over to Kotori with a disapproving look. "Come on, show some enthusiasm!"

"Well sorry guys. I'm not used to this kind of thing. The closest thing to a party I've ever been to were the festivals held in my neighborhood park," Kotori said.

"I don't think those count as real parties," Ryoga told Kotori. "Well, since you're already here you might as well get something to eat. We have quite a spread over there." Ryoga made a small gesture toward the food with his pencil and began to write in his black book.

Before Kotori could even wonder where that book came from, she looked over to where the food was. "A spread?" Kotori had already eaten before she came to the party. But as she gazed at the food she could feel her stomach drain of the meal she had earlier. If there was one thing rich people really knew something about, it was food. "Do you have fancy tuna?"

The eyes of the Host Club members widened. They all thought the same thing. III and IV went over to comfort Kotori as if she was missing something very important. Yuma hopped down from the balcony. He stood up quickly and made his order. "Shark! Get us some fancy tuna!"

"Add some deluxe sushi," Ryoga said into his D-Gazer. He already had it ready before Yuma had made his order.

Kotori's face was beat red. Sure, she's never had sushi made by a real high-end chef, but the club didn't need to make a big fuss over it. Kotori just felt embarrassed now. _This is why I cannot stand this damn rich people._

After the sushi arrived the Hosts began to entertain their guests. The boys went to the various ladies and danced with them for a while before leaving to entertain the next guest. Kotori did the same for a while, but took a step out of the dancing ring to start the plan by searching for her guest.

"Kotori, I've been looking all over for you." The girl in question looked over to see Anna. Kotori smiled. Her guest has arrived. "May I dance with you?" she asked.

"Of course." Kotori held out her hand and led Anna to the dance floor.

Kotori made sure that at least one of the other hosts could see that her and Anna. Haruto was the first to notice.

"Anna's here!" he said. Kaito and Yuma heard the young boy and knew it was time to commence with the plan.

The boys excused themselves from their current dance partner. Yuma stood nearby Kotori and Anna and waited for the Kaito and Haruto to begin with their part (it was mostly Kaito's part, though). While Kotori and Anna danced, Kaito dashed over to the two and swept up Kotori with Haruto trailing close behind.

Anna stood alone, confused on what just happened. "W-was he just kidnapped by somebody?"

Yuma watched Anna to make sure she didn't follow. It's not like she could even if she wanted to, though. Besides the fact that Kaito was amazingly fast, the room Kotori was taken to was for the Hosts only.

Once Kaito and Haruto made it to the Host's room, he placed Kotori down. III, IV, and Ryoga were already there waiting for Kotori.

"You guys didn't have to be so forceful!" Kotori complained.

"Yeah, yeah, just get changed," IV told her. He shoved a package into Kotori's arms containing the outfit she would need to wear for the plan.

The boys waiting as Kotori changed in behind one of the thick curtains in the room. Kotori wondered why there was a changing room so close to this ballroom. It made sense why there was a changing room adjoined to the music room since at one point it could have been used to change into costumes. But why would you need a changing room next to a dance hall?

_Apparently, whoever built this academy knew Yuma would need it for his insane plans,_ Kotori grumbled in her thoughts.

"Now remember Kotori, there's only twenty minutes until the climax of our party. Tsukune should be waiting in the class room at the end of the hall," Ryoga said. "This should all go smoothly. However, if an accident were to somehow to occur through all of this, it would be quite entertaining."

Kotori took note of Ryoga's words. She emerged from the dressing room with the outfit on. The outfit was made up of a short pink dress with a black sash tied in a bow in the front and a small, frilly, short sleeved jacket. The heeled shoes were pink as well. To top it off, Kotori wore a wig that looked exactly like her old hair style. There was a pink flower tied into the wig.

Yuma came into the room to see how things were going. "So, are we all-" The King lost all of his words at the sight of Kotori actually looking like a girl. Yuma was unaware to the fact that he was staring at Kotori. _She's so cute!_

Kotori began to head out of the room as the boys made sure she looked presentable. They all had to admit that it was nice to see Kotori in a dress for a change.

"Kotori, you look cute!" Haruot complimented.

Kotori smiled. "Thanks! I really like the outfit. You know, this wig kind of makes me miss my old hair."

The boys saw Kotori out of the room and watched as she walked down the hall to continue with the plan.

"Good luck Kotori!" III called out.

"You can keep the outfit when you're done!" IV told her.

The twins silently cheered Kotori on while the other boys silently wished her good luck. Except for Yuma, who was still hung up about how pretty Kotori looked. Who knew that commoner boy who walked into the Host Club could look like a beautiful girl if she tried.

Kotori walked down the dark hallways toward the room Yuya would be waiting in. She was playing the role of a girl with a crush who wrote a letter. Kotori was nervous. Even though the letter was fake, she didn't know what it said. Yuma insisted that he'd type up a letter since he "knows how girls think" when they write love letters.

Kotori found the room she was looking for. She carefully opened the door and saw Yuya standing in the back of the room near the windows wearing his third year uniform. Yuya looked up and saw Kotori.

"You wrote the letter?" he said. "You don't seem to be what I imagined."

Kotori walked up to Yuya as he handed her the letter. Kotori knew her eyebrow was twitching as she read the letter.

_I'm in love love! From the day I first saw you my heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest to come on embrace you. Each day when I feel the sun's warm glow, I think of the warmth of the smile that I _love! _ If I were a bird, I would want nothing more than for you to help build me a nest so that we could be close together for the rest of our lives!_

Kotori folded up the letter. Did Yuma know anything about girls and love letters? Or are these rich girls just that weird?

"Have we met before?" Yuya asked. He was afraid that if he pretended to know who this girl was he would hurt her later.

Kotori jumped. Did he recognize her from earlier? "No! This is the first time I've ever had a chance to talk to you!" She laughed nervously and hoped he would buy it.

Luckily, Yuya believed the act. "Look, I'm flattered by your letter, but I'm afraid I don't feel the same way." His face grew sad. It almost looked like he was going to cry. "You see, another girl already has my heart."

Kotori looked up at Yuya sympathetically. "Oh, I'm sorry. I had no idea you had a girlfriend."

"Unfortunately, she's not my girlfriend." Yuya began to stare out the window. "I think she's completely over me in fact. Honestly, I think she'd be happier with some more self confident than me. That's why I'm going to study abroad and see the world. I'm hoping that if I do that, I'll become a better man. I know it's selfish, but all I can hope for it that she'll wait for me."

"You're right," Kotori said. "You're being selfish." Yuya flinched. He did not expect that coming. "I can tell you genuinely care for this girl. You have very strong feeling for her as well. Why don't you just go a talk to her? I'm sure she'd understand if you'd just tell her how you feel. Who knows, maybe she will wait for you. You've already decided that you're going to change. Just by that, haven't you already began you're transformation?"

Yuya looked at Kotori. He wiped away his tears and smiled. The two heard the door open and looked back to see who it was. Yuya stared at Anna and muttered her name. Seeing the two in front of her, Anna assumed she was interrupting something. She felt tears begin to line her eyes.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I'll leave." Without closing the door, Anna ran off.

"Wait! Anna!" Yuya called and ran after her.

Kotori exited the room as Yuya ran off to Anna. She sighed loudly. "It seems as though we only made things worse."

Yuma walked up behind Kotori. "If you see it that way, than sure we screwed up. But he is running after her."

Kotori looked up and Yuma and smiled. Maybe this guy did have some brains after all.

Yuma and Kotori went back to the changing room. Kotori put her suit back on and took off her wig. It was time for the final part of the plan. The Host Club led all of the ladies outside. There were several spotlights that hit the same point. In the center of the spotlights were Anna and Yuya.

"Ladies, welcome to the last waltz of the night," Yuma announced. "Tonight, the waltz will be presented to this couple." Yuma gestured toward Anna and Yuya.

The two looked at each other. After a long second, Yuya offered Anna a hand. "Princess Kozuki, would you share this dance with me this evening?"

Anna smiled and took Yuya's hand. "Of course."

The two dance together smiling. "Anna, I've loved you for a long time. I love you now and I know I will always feel the same way in the future. Anna, I want you to be my wife."

Anna's smile grew brighter. "As of today, I will stop my Host Hopping!"

Cheers broke out in the crowd. The members of the Host Club looked at each other knowing they completed their mission.

Yuma spread out his arms in success. "Now, may this awkward couple forever be blessed!"

"Now, it's time to announce the queen of the ball!" IV announced with a microphone in one hand and a banana peel in the other.

"Congratulations to Princess Kozuki Anna!" III said, microphone in one hand and banana peel in the other. "And for her reward, a kiss on the cheek from the King!"

Yuma smiled devilishly and put a hand on his chin. "Ready?"

"Mizuki Kotori will step in for Yuma!" IV told the audience.

"Wait, what?" Yuma shouted.

The twins shrugged, the banana peels now missing from their hands. "Shark said an accident in the night could make this entertaining."

"Do I really have to kiss her?" Kotori asked. It's not that kissing Anna would be horrible. The fact was that she wanted the first person she kissed on the cheek to be a guy.

"Your debt will be cut by a third if you kiss her," Ryoga informed her.

Kotori sighed. She had to take the offer now. Kotori walked down a set of stairs to Anna. Kotori placed her hands on Anna's face and aimed for her cheek.

"You know, I don't think Kotori has ever kissed anyone before," IV wondered aloud.

Just as planned, Yuma heard the comment and freaked out. "Wait, Kotori! Don't!" The King rushed down the stairs to stop Kotori. Before he could even get to the bottom of the stairs, Yuma tripped on some banana peels. He slipped of the stairs and bumped into Kotori. When Yuma bumped into Kotori, her hands jerked which twisted Anna's head. The two were pushed together, their lips forced together.

Kotori and Anna quickly pulled away from each other. There was supposed to be a kiss, but not like that. Yuma look up a Kotori like a sad puppy. Daddy didn't want his little girl to kiss anyone.

Kotori felt her lips break into a smile. _That's never how I planned my first kiss. I guess it's fine though. There's no other way to end a night like this._

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

A/N: Chapter two is done! And sadly, so is my summer. I have to go back to school tomorrow.

In other news, I'm probably only going to do a few more chapters that follow the anime before breaking off into my own plotline. For a few characters I may be pulling from the different Yugioh series. Also, my head cannon (which I plan to write some time after I finish this) keep getting in the way of this, namely an OC I have. I don't know if anyone really cares about whether or not there's an OC, but I just wanted to state that because I've been thinking of the chapter my OC will be introduced in.

Also, when I wrote the love letter from Kotori to Yuya I accidently thought of a line that wouldn't have fit. It was a, let's say, dirty line. After thinking of that, it just kept getting worse and worse. I'm thinking of possibly writing the whole thing down as a one-shot or maybe a very strange, multi-chapter school fic.

So, share your thoughts on all of this please! Till next time!


	3. Chapter 3

Beautiful black gates opened up. The Heartland Academy Host Club stood behind the gates with smiles that greeted their guests. The flowers of the cherry blossom trees were in bloom. You could smell the light fragrance of the flowers as petals floated down from the trees. Behind the members of the Host Club was a small reception for the guests to view the flowers. However, what was more important than the reception were the dueling fields further back. Dueling was one of the Host Club's specialties after all.

The Host Club's guests filed into the reception area. Some of the guests waltzed back to the dueling fields in the back in hopes of facing one of the hosts. Before the foundation of the Heartland Academy Host Club many girls that attended the academy did not duel. However, with the help of a few gorgeous male duelists, most of the girls who used to take Duel History now had Dueling as their class. Of course, they only took the class to fare better against these pro duelists.

All of the members of the club wore black dress pants and shoes with a white dress shirt under an ash gray vest and tie. More than half of the Host Club walked back to the dueling fields and awaited their opponents. The remainder of the club stood by the tables as they waited for their guests.

Yuma slid back as his life points slightly dropped. Yuma's life points came up through AR vision and dropped down to 3800. The King sighed loudly. "Oh no, it seems that Gogogo Golem was no use against that attack. What should I do now? Perhaps I'll send out Zubaba Knight and this spell card." Yuma covered his mouth with his hand. "My bad, it seems that I've spilt my strategy to you, my darling. It seems as though I'll have to come up with a new one."

Yuma's opponent and all of the girls watching squealed with delight. Their King Yuma had slipped up, not that that was anything new. Sadly, fangirls never get enough of one thing.

On the other field, III gave a small cry as his monster was destroyed.

"III!" IV called out. He rushed over to his brother's side and held III in his arms. "Please, don't be so careless. I have traps of my own if you needed them, but I knew you had something to stop that attack."

III looked up at IV and smiled sweetly. "I'm sorry, I forgot it was there. I know I can't always count on you to keep me safe."

Two girls watching III and IV from a table marveled at the sight. "It's so beautiful! I think they're bringing tears to my eyes!" One of the girls said.

"No! Dry your tears. You need to see this! Who knows when it will happen again?" the other girl warned.

Ryoga slid over to the girls. "You are completely right, my dear," he told the two. "Beauty is scarce in the world. Take these cherry blossoms for example; there aren't many places where you can see their vibrant blossoms. That's why I have taken the liberty to compile this photo book that contains pictures of the beauty that occurs each passing day." Ryoga showed the girls a slim, magazine-like book with III and IV on the cover. The two wore their uniforms and posed elegantly for the cover. The title of the book was written in large letters that read "Archlight". "It just so happens I have books prepared on the other members of the Host Club as well. If you're interested in collecting all four, I'll discount the whole set." Ryoga pulled out three similar books with the other members of the Host Club on the cover and their last names as the title. However, a photo book on himself wasn't among the four books.

The girl pulled out their pocket books and practically begged for all four of the books.

III and IV removed their D-Gazers as they finished their duel and watched the girl purchase their photo books. "Now we know how the club gets extra money," they said.

"But I have to wonder," IV began.

"Where did Shark get those pictures?" III finished.

The twins shrugged off the thought. It was just another thing Shark did for the Host Club.

Back to the dueling fields, Kotori sat at a table and watched Haruto duel. Kaito was standing close by also watching his little brother duel.

Haruto's field was almost empty accept for one card face down, however he did have 3000 life points. His opponent, on the other hand, only had 500 life points, but she did have the XYZ monster Alchemic Magician on her field. The opponent activated a magic card.

"And now my monster's attack points are doubled to 3000!" Haruto's opponent announced. "Now, Alchemic Magician attack!" The long, curly, green haired magician flew toward Haruto to attack.

The young boy smiled. He knew he wasn't losing this duel. "I activate my trap card Negate Attack!" The trap card face down on Haruto's field revealed itself and stopped the monsters attack. "Your attack in now negated and your turn ends here!"

The girl cupped hands on her cheeks. "Oh wow Haruto! You're so good at dueling!" she said.

"Thanks!" Haruto replied. "Now, my turn, draw!" Haruto placed his new card in his hand. He then chose two cards from his hand. "I remove one LIGHT attribute monster and one DARK attribute monster that was in my hand from the game. Now I can summon this!" Haruto quickly placed two on his monsters in his deck case and summoned his monster. "Come on out, Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End!"

A large, winged dragon with 3000 now stood on the field. Haruto smiled. "I activate the effect of my monster. By paying 1000 life points, I can send all the cards from both of our hands to the graveyard." Haruto discarded the card from his hand and his opponent discarded the two from her hand. "Now you take 300 points of damage for each card sent to the grave!" Haruto gave a small chuckle. "It's okay if we stop now! I wouldn't want you to face all of that damage and get your pretty uniform all dirty!"

The two ended the duel. Haruto's former opponent and many other girls swarmed around the duelist with compliments for his skills.

Though she was impressed by Haruto's skill, Kotori was confused. "Why didn't he just give her a direct attack? He wouldn't have lost any life points that way and he would've still won the duel."

"Well it's not always about the obvious way in Host Club duels, ya' know."

"Yuma-senpai, I didn't see you there," Kotori said. "Would you mind explaining?"

"Of course!" Yuma brightly answered. "As you know, the job of a host is to make every girl happy. Now, one way to make them happy is to let them win a duel, but these guys have professional records to keep. A few of us actually have records with no losses, so no one is allowed to lose due to that. Even though we need to win a duel, we don't want to be rough. Would you like it if your opponent dealt 3000 points of direct damage toward you? Not to mention that you'll get blow back pretty far with a hit like that."

"I see. So you basically win against your opponent, but you don't let them face the pain of the damage," Kotori summarized. "Wow, that's really cool! Maybe I should start dueling."

"Has my impressive speech inspired you?" Yuma asked. "Or perhaps you want to be close to the same level of dueling as the guy you're falling for?" Yuma gave Kotori an attractive gaze.

"No offense, but what is your level of dueling?" Kotori said flatly. Yuma froze with her question. "Everyone in the Host Club who duels has a professional record, not to mention that they're fairly well known. But you haven't even competed in a real, professional tournament, have you?"

Yuma curled up next to a tree with his back to the club in depression. Sure, he hasn't actually participated in an official duel tournament of any sort, but Kotori didn't need to say tell him like it was obvious!

"Hey, Mommy dear," Yuma said.

Ryoga smirked, knowing Yuma was in another pointless depression. He decided to play along with this game. "So, what is it now, Daddy?"

"Am I really not a professional duelist?"

"You're really figuring that our right now?"

Yuma yelped as if he was just struck by lightning. "Well you don't have to say it like that!"

Ryoga rolled his eyes. "Honestly, I would think you'd be more concerned about some other stupid thing like how Kotori is making friends with the twins or some other stupid-"

"THEY'RE FRIENDS!?" Yuma shouted.

_I had to open my damn mouth, _Ryoga thought.

"Well, all three of them are in the same class. Since they know each other already, it's only natural to stay close to each other during class. In the process of sticking together, the three will end up bonding," Ryoga told Yuma. "Actually, I think they're talking about their classes right now."

Yuma snapped his attention toward Kotori. Sure enough, she was hanging out with the twins. They were talking about something. Yuma manage to see a paper IV was holding. He recognized it to be a class selection sheet. Yuma screamed. "No way! That's not right! How are they all so close? She's supposed to be close to her Daddy!"

Ryoga chuckled. _Maybe this will actually be fun._

"You see, III and IV spend almost nine hour a day together with Kotori since they're all in the same class. You, on the other hand, only have a few hours of club activities to spend with her," Ryoga explained. "In other words, your involvement with Kotori is very, very slim."

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" Yuma shouted while covering his ears. The King rushed up to Kotori and held her by her shoulders. "Kotori! You've gotta stop hanging around those shady twins! They're going to become a bad influence on you!"

"Who are you calling shady King of Secret Plans?" IV yelled.

"Yeah! And aren't you the one with a negative influence on Kotori? I don't think we tried to have holograms hold tea cups!" III shouted.

Yuma was taken aback by the comments from the twins. He did have a lot of plans in the past that did have the entire Host Club acting strangely. Not to mention that with all of Yuma's immature behavior Kotori could end up picking up a few of his habits unintentionally. "They're right. It looks like there's only one option. It's time for you to start acting like a girl again!"

Kotori rolled her eyes. It was this speech again.

Yuma seemed to be crying with his next words. "We're all just a bunch of troublesome boys here! All Daddy wants is for you to be a good girl and surround yourself with girlfriends to share secrets and gossip and whatever else it is girls do!"

"Why do you keep referring to yourself as 'Daddy'?" Kotori asked.

"I won't stand for it any longer!" Yuma exclaimed while brushing off Kotori's question. "Please, change! Change back now!"

Yuma held Kotori's shoulders and rocked her back and forth. III and IV saw their poor classmate and decided to intervene.

"You know you don't have to rush things," IV said.

"Physical examines are the day after tomorrow and Kotori's identity will be figured out then," III reminded.

Yuma stopped rocking Kotori. The honors student looked over toward the twins with a confused look. "Physical examines?"

Kotori thought back to examines she's had in the past. The girls and the boys would be split up and taken to the nurse to check simple things like height and weight. Kotori remembered how most of the guys at her middle school would compete over their height.

"You guys are right," Kotori said. "The doctors would figure out my identity right from the start. Everyone is going to know that I'm a girl."

The Host Club boys flinched. They were going to lose Kotori from their club.

The Host Club hours ended and all of the girls filed out. Yuma gathered some servants to clean up after the club's activities and then headed back to Music Room #3 with the rest of the Host Club boys in silence. Once everyone was back in their room, Yuma sat in his chair and began to daydream.

_Clusters of rose petals blew through air. Once all of the petals cleared away, a girl with short green hair was revealed. The bow from the back of her ruby uniform seemed to sparkle as the masses of students gazed upon this girl._

"_Oi! Kotori!" Yuma called._

_The girl turned around with a vacant look on her face. Her hazel eyes gleamed in the sunlight and her hair was slightly braided, despite its length. _

_Kotori approached Yuma. "Senpai," she spoke softly. "Everyone is staring at me. I-I'm not use to all of this."_

_Yuma grabbed Kotori by her waist and used his other hand to sweep up her hand. It looked like the two were going to dance. "It's because you are beautiful, Kotori. Don't let the stares of anyone frighten you. I will be here to protect you."_

_Kotori buried herself into Yuma's chest. "Oh senpai."_

_Yuma held Kotori's hands and began to swing her around. The two of them had smiles on their faces as Kotori proclaimed her love to Yuma._

III and IV watched Yuma. The King had a smile of absolute joy on his face while his eyes were littered with accomplishment, even though they were closed.

"What do you think he's daydreaming about?" III asked his brother.

IV shrugged. "I don't know. It has to be something good. Maybe he actually became Duel Champion in this particular day dream."

"So nothing new? He better stop soon. His face is creeping me out."

Yuma snapped out of his day dream. "You jealous, IV?" Yuma asked. "You see, I've already see the outcome of this game. We are all in a romantic school comedy. Kotori and I are the main characters which automatically makes us love interests from the first time you seem both of us on screen even though she may click better with another character who will become increasingly important over time," Yuma explained.

"I'm going to regret this, but what the hell is he talking about?" Ryoga asked.

Haruto and Kaito came up from behind and shrugged. It was just another one of Yuma's crazy explanations. All they knew is that they were just anime characters in Yuma convoluted mind.

IV decided to play along for a little more. "So who are we suppose to be?"

"You boys," Yuma said. "are the all of my friends who just so happen to be the convenient homosexual supporting cast!"

Everyone rolled their eyes. Yuma had to be kidding this time, right? What went on in this guy's mind to label them all as homosexual? Can't a group of attractive men hang out together and be straight? Most of this "supporting cast" is related to another member after all.

"You know Boss, I don't think you're getting the whole picture here," III told Yuma

"Yeah, if word gets out that Tori-chan's a girl, then she can't be a part of the Host Club anymore," Haruto informed.

Yuma was at a loss of words. How could have he not seen that one coming? Apparently a daydream with a girl with a pretty face actually wearing a female uniform was enough to make Yuma forget that detail.

"I bet if Tori-chan started wearing girl's clothes she'd be even cuter than she is now!" Haruto exclaimed.

"She did look pretty in her middle school uniform," IV commented. "I bet she was quite popular with all of the boys."

"That's correct. According to my investigative report, someone would pledge their undying love to Kotori at the minimum of one time a month," Ryoga said. "In other words, if Kotori's secret is revealed, Yuma wouldn't have that slightest chance of getting close to her."

"But we would since we're in the same class," III and IV added deviously.

Yuma couldn't believe his ears. Would his precious daughter Kotori really be sealed away from him if her secret was revealed? Would she only have those twin devils there to see her and take up all of her time? Yuma's thoughts were stopped there as the doors to the Host Club opened up.

"I'm so sorry guys," Kotori said as she entered the room "I kinda got lost with all the confusion of cleaning up. All of your servants kind of swept me up."

Yuma rushed over to Kotori and looked her in the eyes. "Now you listen to me Kotori. Daddy's gonna do whatever it takes to keep your secret safe! You won't be revealed as a girl during the physical examines. Just please promise to stay our secret princess!"

Kotori blinked twice. She had no idea about what Yuma was talking about. "Um, okay. I guess so," she answered unsurely.

"You know, I think we'd all be peeved having to see all the guys flirting with Kotori," IV said.

"Then that settles it. It's time for some Kattobingu!" III announced.

The twins pulled out a white board and they both wrote. III wrote "Operation: Keep Kotori's identity a secret is underway!" on the top of the board like a banner. IV put "Operation: I swear Kotori is a boy no matter how feminine he may look!" in a bubble that usually represented shouting in manga.

The boys gathered around the board and awaited their instructions. Yuma took the marker and began drawing some figures. He quickly explained his diagrams, but Kotori couldn't hear a word they were saying.

"So, you will assume Position A tomorrow during the physical examine and wait there for your instructions!" Yuma told the boys.

Kotori watched the boys as she tried to figure out why they were so intent on helping her. She pounded her fist into her hand as she discovered the answer. "I got it! You guys want to keep my secret because if I'm a girl, I can't be a host. Meaning, if I'm not a host, I can't repay my debt."

Kotori folded her arms. "Let's see, my balance at home is just over five million yen," she thought aloud. "Hmm. I guess I'll just have to pay you guys back in another way!" Kotori began laughing. They were going to go through so much trouble just to make sure she could stay a host. There are other ways to repay a debt, but were they really going to insist to keep her a host?

"Come on Boss, you gotta do something!" IV said.

"Yeah, this plan isn't appealing to her at all!" III added.

"Why'd we get stuck with such a difficult heroine?" Yuma muttered. He sighed and decided to get the truth from Kotori. "Are you saying you hate being a host? Do you hate this club?" he accused.

"Honestly, I'd have to say yes," Kotori answered smoothly. A bunch of squealing fangirls wasn't her ideal way of spending her time when she could be studying.

Yuma was shocked. Did his little girl really hate her daddy's club? Out of depression of that realization, Yuma shrank into a corner and moped to himself.

The rest of the boys just looked at Kotori. She seemed to be laughing with joy about the thought of leaving the host club. It stung the boys slightly that Kotori really hated the club that much.

"What are we going to do? She doesn't seem to care about leaving the club or not!" said IV. "There's gotta be some way we can convince her to stay."

Kaito smirked. He could see Kotori's weakness. "Fancy tuna."

Kotori stopped laughing immediately with the mention of quality sushi. She could even picture the perfectly catered food in her head.

Yuma snapped out of his depressive state and smiled mischievously. "That's right. You didn't get a chance to try any during last episodes party," he said, still thinking his life was some kind of anime.

III and IV held their hands over their mouths as if they were speaking about something important.

"Did you hear? I heard Kotori's never had fancy tuna?" III loudly whispered.

"Wow, now that's a difficult childhood," IV responded.

Haruto looked down at his dragon with a frown. "If only Tori-chan could stay in the Host Club. Then she'd get a chance to have all the fancy tune she'd like, along with a bunch of other yummy foods."

Kotori gulped. "Do you guys really think I'll fall for that? Even though I'm poor, I'm not so much of a glutton that I'd continue to fool the entire school about my gender just to eat some fancy tuna," she told the club with a nervous chuckled. She coughed. "Am I really going to have the chance to try it?"

The Host Club was smiling. They knew she was going to submit to the food.

*.*.*.

Physical examine day had now came and the Host Club's plan was ready to be put into action. An announcement was made informing all of the students to report to the clinic for the examines. Groups of students traveled down to their assigned location. The halls were filled with chatter as the students traveled.

"So, are physical examines any different here at Heartland Academy than at any other school?" Kotori asked the twins.

"No, it's just like any other examine," IV told her.

"Why would they be any different? Just because we're rich doesn't mean we can make everything better than what you commoners have," III said.

"I guess you're right," Kotori spoke.

The students made their way to the clinic and pushed their way through the doors. Kotori's eyes widened as she observed the sight. There were two rows made up of nurses in their uniforms and doctors in lab coats smiling as the students entered the room.

_This is nothing like a normal highschool_, Kotori thought with a shocked expression on her face.

"Guys, what exactly is this?" Kotori asked.

"It's just another physical examine," IV said casually.

"The usual," III added nonchalantly.

The two walked into the room with Kotori shuffling behind them. Two nurses came up to take the twins to their examine area. Kotori looked at them with sheer disbelief. What ordinary school has physical examines with your own private nurse?

A nurse approached Kotori. "Mr. Mizuki, I'm your personal nurse for the day. Please, follow me."

Kotori took a moment to compose herself from the shock of the physical examine room and then followed the nurse. She looked around the large clinic in hopes of finding the other members of the Host Club who were bound to be somewhere around here. She managed to spot Kaito and Haruto who were dressed like doctors. A group of girls were staring at the loving with a hint of confusion. They were asking each other why the brothers were in lab coats.

"Kaito-senpai? Haruto-senpai?" Kotori said with confusion. The two raised a finger to their lips to tell Kotori to be silent. They couldn't have their cover blown, even if it was as obvious as not telling your opponent what your face down card is.

"I have those two as back up just in case anything gets out of hand."

Kotori looked behind her. "Ryoga-senpai?" With all of the other hosts here, Kotori couldn't help but wonder where Yuma was. "Why are those two in doctor outfits?"

"It's to set the mood," Ryoga answered. "Disguises make it feel like a real mission."

Kotori rolled her eyes. Something told her Yuma was behind that. She glanced over and saw a doctor congratulating a girl on her new, healthier weight. "Don't these doctors seem too jovial?"

"All of the doctors here are employed by the school's chairman. This may be a school, but it's also a business. Therefore, he wants all of the students to be happy. After all, most of the students who attend this school come from prominent families with their own private doctors. The physical examines only function as a formality," Ryoga explained.

_I can't believe these damn rich people_, Kotori thought and followed her nurse to the physical examine area.

The three Host Club boys watched Kotori go off. As they made sure everything was okay, a brown haired man in a lab coat with stubble on his face brushed past Ryoga.

"S-sorry," he said quickly and hurried off.

"No problem," Ryoga told him quietly, even though he was out of earshot. That man didn't seem to know where he was. All of the doctors in this area were already here.

Kotori's nurse stopped. She didn't stop at Kotor's examine room, but the one that belonged to the twins who were ready for their examine. A large group of girls gathered around the room to watch the twins as well. Kotori stepped to the side. She had a feeling there would be screaming soon and being caught in that wouldn't be pleasant.

"Arclight twins, you can change behind this curtain," a nurse told the twins.

III and IV walked into the examination room, but didn't draw the curtain. The two wore a mischievous smile and began to strip off their shirts.

"It's fine. We're not shy," IV said.

The boys through off their shirts and displayed their toned muscles for the ladies. Just as Kotori predicting, all of the girls squealed at the shirtless twins.

"See Kotori, it's quite an impressive turnout, don't you agree. Physical examine day always is popular with the ladies," said Ryoga.

Kotori started at the twins and the fangirls in confusion. Why did these rich girls always have to go ballistic over a few attractive guys without shirts? It confused Kotori to no end. She couldn't help but wonder when she would begin to get used to the life of a host.

The twins continued their display for the ladies with a little dialogue.

"III, I can't allow this. I won't have any of those doctors touch you," IV told his brother protectively.

"I don't see why you have a problem with this. It's never like this when we play doctor at home. You never stock tickling me and toying with my body," III sweetly informed his brother.

The girls went ecstatic over this display. III and IV at home fooling around with each other was too much. Everyone seemed to quickly branch off into their own fantasies with games the twins played. Regardless of what the day dream was, the twins made it very hot. That's what the Host Club ends up doing with a traveling location.

With all of the girls confused, Haruto and Kaito shoved Kotori into a examine room. Kotori stumbled into the room. Before she had a chance to catch herself, a pair of arms caught her from behind. Kotori's head snapped back to see that Yuma was in the room with her.

"Y-Yuma-senpai," she breathed.

Yuma released Kotori and smiled. "Did I startle you, my little bird?"

Kotori rolled her eyes. She was startled, but it wasn't because of Yuma. Wouldn't anyone be startled if they were randomly shoved into a curtained area and then caught by someone they couldn't see? Who knows, there could've been some disgusting pervert in the room.

"Senpai, what exactly are you planning?" Kotori asked.

Yuma gave the girl a wink and put on a wig that matched Kotori's hair. "Don't worry, I've got this all figured out."

Yuma walked toward the curtain and unbuttoned his shirt. A nurse called for Kotori to come out. Yuma grabbed and curtain and pulled it opened.

"Here I am," Yuma said calmly.

The room was silent. The girl whispered amongst themselves.

"Isn't that Yuma?"

"How could it not be? That is his pendant hanging from around his neck, isn't it?"

Yuma looked at the girls with shock. How could they have seen through his brilliant disguise? Sure, there was the height different and maybe the wig wasn't perfect, but how was he unveiled so quickly?

III and IV burst out into hysterical laughter.

"I-I can't believe he fell for it!" III laughed.

"Oh, it's too much! Make it stop!" IV begged.

Yuma stormed over to the twins and ripped off the wig. "Hey! What's the big idea! I thought you two said no one would be able to see through my disguise!"

"I've got one thing to say to you: Homosexual supporting cast my ass!" IV choked out through his laughter. "And even if they didn't see through the disguise, you've still got your key on!"

Yuma cooled down, cautiously stalked back into the examination room and drew back the curtains. He chuckled nervously. "Looks like they managed to figure it out."

Kotori glared at Yuma and choked him with the rope his pendant was secured to. "Maybe I should take off this pendant for you!"

Yuma bolted out of the changing room and stood in the middle of the crowd for a few seconds. It was as if every fiber of his body began to disintegrate. "Kotori… threatened Daddy…" he said weakly.

Kotori sighed and let her anger escape. _What was he thinking? Couldn't he even take into account the damn skin tone and eye color for this? I thought this was important for him._

"Kotori," Ryoga spoke. Kotori looked up to see Ryoga and the rest of the Host Club standing outside the other side of the curtain away from all of the girls. "Are you ready? I've had another room set up for you and a doctor sworn to secrecy. Everything should be in place now."

"It turns out that the staff here today are all employed and one of Shark-senpai's family's hospitals," III told Kotori.

"Wouldn't been a lot easier if he told us earlier, though," IV added.

Ryoga shrugged. "I had to get my revenge too. I'm not supporting cast and I'm just going to disregard that other part Yuma said."

The Host Club, minus Yuma, showed Kotori the way to the special clinic where her physical examine would be held. Kotori opened the door and saw a female doctor waiting for her.

"Hello Ms. Mizuki. I've been made aware of your situation. Please disrobe over there behind the curtain," the doctor said.

Kotori smiled. Maybe these boys really did care.

The Host Club decided to go back to Yuma Who knew what their king would have to say this time. However, the boys were stopped as they overheard some chatter from a small crowd. The crowd stood around a girl sitting on the floor wiping a few tears from her eyes as a nurse tried to console her.

"I've never been so scared in my life. One of the doctors grabbed me by the shoulder. I could tell by that grasp he was planning on doing something," the girl on the floor explained.

"I was afraid something like this was going to happen," Shark said.

"What did you mean by that?" Haruto asked.

"Well, earlier today there was a man who bumped into me. He didn't look like one of our doctors, yet he was dressed in a lab coat. There was diffidently something strange about him," Shark explained.

"And you didn't think to report it?" III and IV asked with annoyance.

"Well it's too late now. Besides, I'm sure the security will locate him soon and drag him out of the building."

"Which way did you see the pervert doctor go, miss?" Someone asked the girl on the floor.

"I saw him head toward the special boy's clinic," she answered.

The boys flinched. "Kotori!" they shouted.

Yuma came out of the clinic once he heard all of the ruckus and met up with the rest of the Host Club. The boys quickly explained the situation while they club ran to save Kotori.

At the clinic, Kotori began to disrobe behind the curtain. She hung up her tie and began to peel off her shirt. Once she had the shirt off, Kotori heard the curtains move. She turned around to see a brown haired man enter.

"Ex-excuse me?" Kotori said to get the man's attention. Was he in the wrong room?

The man glided to Kotori and put a hand over her mouth. "No! Stop, it's not what you think!"

Kotori felt her heart began to pound. What was this man going to do? Didn't the doctor notice him come in? The doors aren't really that quite in this academy.

Kotori felt a scream in her throat, but would anyone hear her with this man's hand muffling her?

"Kattobingu!"

Kotori's glanced out of the side of her eye to see Yuma, who was wearing his D-Gazer for some reason, burst through the curtain and kick the man into the wall. Somehow, Yuma manage to leave a large dent in the wall with his kick. When did he develop anime character kicks?

"Don't mess with the most powerful duelist there ever is!" he announced in a cocky tone. Yuma draped his unbuttoned shirt onto Kotori's head to cover her.

"One," The twins spoke as they entered the room and stood on opposite sides behind Kotori. "Good looks that attract the public eye."

"Two," Shark entered from the shadows from a corner of the room. "More wealth than you could ever imagine."

"Three," Kaito said. "Chivalry that will never overlook…"

"…the hideous wickedness of this world," Haruto finished.

"And dueling skills that are out of this world!" Yuma spoke. "That's what makes up the Heartland Highschool Host Club!"

The boys stood around Kotori as a pack with intimidating poses. They stood tall and glared down at the man. "We're here! So watch out!"

The man held up his hands in innocence. "W-wait! You don't understand! Please, spare me my life!" the man began bowing to the Host Club, leaving Kotori very confused.

Yuma broke from his intimidating pose. "Wait, aren't you my sister's boss? Editor and Chief, person, right?"

"Yes," he said. "At least, your sister used to work for me. I'm the Editor and Chief for the paper in the town over. You see, my wife left me a few weeks ago and I was hoping to see my daughter. I knew she attended school here, so I came in to find her."

_And suddenly it's his life story_, Kotori thought, yet she pried for more information. "I don't mean to dive into your marital problems, but why did your wife leave you in the first place?"

"Well, you see, things aren't the best back home. There are a lot of money issues with the paper. I keep trying to get new stories out of my writers, but they're never in on time. But I know they will be! I know they'll come to me in time for an issue soon! I have complete trust in them, but my wife and daughter thought otherwise. They both left and went to my mother-in-law's house," Editor and Chief explained.

"I know I'm terrible with money and I can understand that my family didn't want to live in debt for the rest of their lives, but I need to see my daughter. I travel here through downpours that lasted days and winds that moved cars to come to your school. I just need to see my little girl once more. But when I got here, I was mistaken for a doctor to examine students."

"You do know you are wearing a lab coat, right?" IV pointed out.

"Anyone would mistake you," III added. "Even if you do kinda smell like a moldy Duel Monsters card."

"And then it happened," Editor in Chief continued, referencing to the situation that occurred earlier. "I was just trying to find my little girl. I saw a girl walking down the hall and asked her if she knew where my daughter was. Sure, the grip on her shoulder was a little rough and I don't look like the cleanest man on earth, but she didn't need to scream." The man began to burst into tears. "After that, all sorts of people began to chase after me!"

Yuma, who was also in tears, went over to console the sobbing man. "That's so sad!" In the end, Yuma ended up crying with the man.

The rest of the Host Club was done with this story. Honestly, the guy didn't need to tell them his whole life story. It's not like they were ever going to see him again. They didn't even know his name.

"Excuse me, Mr. Editor and Chief," Ryoga spoke. "You wouldn't happen to be searching for Heartland Public Highschool?"

The man stopped sobbing and looked up. "Yeah, that's the school."

"That's what I thought. I'm afraid you have the wrong school. This is Heartland _Academy_, a private institution. Your daughter doesn't go to school here."

Editor and Chief's face burst into shock. This whole he had had the wrong school. It was as if this was a gigantic waste of time.

"That's sad. You don't even know what school your daughter goes to," IV said.

"I'm pretty sure she left you because you paid no attention to her, not about the debt," III told him.

"Wow, nice work Shark-chan! I'm impressed you figured it out!" Haruto commented.

"Well it was pretty simple. There's no way that such a small time doctor could ever afford to send his daughter to such an elite academy," Ryoga said.

Kotori growled. _She_ managed to get into the school even though she came from a middle class family. _These damn rich people_, she thought.

"Shark," Yuma spoke. "I want you to find a map of all the public schools in this area. I would like to help this man find his daughter."

"Yuma, there's only one public school in this area," Ryoga told him. Yuma fell over. "I'll get a map to the school anyway."

The Host Club explained everything to security and managed to find the school Editor and Chief's daughter attended. While the Host Club helped him, Kotori continued with her physical examine in peace.

"You know Boss, even though he may find his daughter, it won't mean she'll want to speak to him," IV commented.

"Well, he'll just have to see what goes on next in his life," Yuma said.

Kotori looked up at Yuma. Sometimes, he was an absolute idiot. However, it was times like these when Yuma shined. He always cared for other and tried to help them, even if they were complete strangers. It was almost like he played a card game with them and he then became their friend through dueling. Wouldn't it be easy if all problems could just be solved with a children's card game?

"Excuse me," the real doctor spoke. "I couldn't help but overhear your speech from earlier. You boys are really a Host Club, right?"

Yuma nodded. "That's right!"

"Could I have a picture? It's for my boss's daughter. The girl has been wondering what a Host Club looks like."

"Sure, that's fine!"

The Host Club gathered around Yuma and smiled for the camera. The doctor thanked the boys and Kotori once the photo was finished and headed out.

"Shark, couldn't your sister just have asked for a photo of the Host Club or have just stopped by?" Yuma asked.

"Actually, that doctor no longer works for our company. She trained with us, but she's now the personal doctor to the future heir to Kaiba Corp." Shark said.

"Wait, so the daughter of Kaiba Seto is now going to have a picture of us?" IV asked with an impressed voice.

"That's so cool! We have a famous fan now!" Haruto cheered.

"I suppose we do," Ryoga said.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

A/N: It feels like I haven't updated in forever! It must be school, it's an evil place! I really hope you guys didn't feel like you were waiting forever. It takes me longer to post chapters to this story because they're so long compared to my other stories. I still don't believe how much I manage to write with this, but I love writing this length.

I am super psyched for the next chapter. I get to go off into my own plot for the chapter and you'll all see why with the next update! I really hope you'll like it!

Anyway, did anyone catch the slight reference from Dragon Ball Z? You know, when Yuma had the wall shattering kick and he had his scouter rip off on? It's fine if you didn't see that, it's kinda hard to see!

Can't wait for the next update! I hope you all enjoyed!


	4. Chapter 4

"Everything checks out perfectly, Mr. Kaiba. Arishia is perfectly healthy."

"Of course, that's good to know."

The doctor smiled. "Oh, and I picked up a gift for you Arishia. I was back at home and my old boss asked me to help out with the physical examines with a partner of his. I'm sure you're familiar with Heartland Academy."

The doctor handed a picture to a teenage girl. The girl stared at the picture for a second. A large smiled spread across her face. "Perfect."

*.*.*.

"These damn rich people," Kotori grumbled as she picked up a small bottle on the floor. She turned around to face III and IV. "Honestly, you guys need to use teardrops to sweep these girls off their feet?"

The twins shrugged. "Almost all of us use them."

"It's not uncommon for a host to use teardrops, Kotori," III said

"What woman could resist a man on the verge of tears?" IV added.

Kotori rolled her eyes. These stupid teardrops were basically cheat codes. To think that the members of the Host Club actually have all of these girl fawning over these foolish boys with false tears. It was almost embarrassing to be of the same gender the way the girls reacted.

Kotori decided it was best to ignore the situation for now. The Host Club was extra busy today. All of the girls wanted to see the Hosts in their new kimonos. Each kimono was unique from all of the others, except for the twins who wore matching kimonos. Many of the hosts had displayed their beautifully toned chests for the ladies, but some (like Kotori) decided not to show any skin.

Today's Host Club décor consisted of an oriental style of dividers and mats. There were small inclines to give the room a different feel from its usual open grounds to a more snug setting.

"You're doing a very nice job with bringing in new costumers, Kotori," Ryoga addressed the girl. "I'm not going to charge you with interest on your debt like I normally do, but the rental fee on that kimono is something you don't want to overlook." Ryoga gave Kotori a false smiled.

Kotori made a face. _He's just like a heartless tax collector! He can even pull off the smile._

A few girls popped up around Ryoga with smiles on their faces. They babbled for a bit about the host's outfit before one girl spoke what was really on their minds.

"So Shark, are there any new picture books available?"

"I'm sorry ladies, but there's nothing for you at the moment," Ryoga told them.

III and IV peaked over a divider.

"Doesn't the Host Club make a lot of money with the picture books?" IV asked.

"That's true, but those books were filled with nothing but amateur hidden camera shots," Shark explained and showed the twins the photos. "If we're going to sell any more we're going to have to upgrade our equipment. However, we'd need to pull money from the school budget in order to do that."

_Wow, Ryoga-senpai really is the brains in this operation. Without him, the Host Club probably wouldn't exist. _Kotori paused in thought. _That means if he wasn't a Host I this club wouldn't exist and I wouldn't be in this debt! Why cruel world, why?_

Kotori sighed and decided it was about time she returned to her station. She did have appointments to tend to after all. However, the twins decided to stop her along the way. III held out a small container that held a small piece of candy. It looked like a small, pink, cotton candy pumpkin, but instead of a stem there were ornate, edible, silver balls on the top.

"Here Kotori," III said, placing the candy in Kotori's hands.

"It's to say sorry for using the teardrops," IV explained.

A crowd of girl gathered around the newest display. How would Kotori respond to the twin's gesture? How can he pull off his usual simple, cute appearance after receiving a gift from III _and_ IV? The girls were brimming with anxiety.

"Thanks," Kotori said with a smile. "I don't normally eat sweets, but I think this will be a nice memorial offering for my mother."

The girl stood there with shocked yet adoring faces. Once again, their host Kotori pulled of a beautifully simple reaction after receiving a level of adoration from another host. It was just too much to bear! Some felt tears being brought to their eyes. However, none of the girls' tears could amount to the mass of tears the Host Club King had flowing from his eyes.

"How sad! How tragic! I think I could cry more than I already am!" Yuma announced. He waltzed over to Kotori and began placing more sweets into her hand. "Here Kotori, take as many of these as you wish! Whatever will appease the pain you are feeling inside!"

Kotori took a half-step back. Yuma was really going nuts this time. Honestly, Kotori couldn't care about all of the sweets Yuma was giving her. He was just being crazy, unlike the twins who actually had a (sort of) real reason to present their sweet.

"So, you're using eye drops as well?" Kotori asked as she observed the rivers pouring from Yuma's eyes. The honors student wouldn't be surprised if the King put too many drops in his eyes. Reading wasn't one of Yuma's strong points.

Yuma ceased the piling of sweets into Kotori's hand. He took a dramatic step back so the light could hit his tear-lined eyes, causing them to have the effect of shimmering glitter.

"I do not cry false tears. These tears in my eyes are those that come from my heart," Yuma explained to Kotori. "The ability to cry without eye drops is what makes a true host."

The other hosts gathered around Kotori and Yuma. All of the guests had already left as Yuma gave Kotori special attention. The twins yawned as Yuma decided to give Kotori another speech on how impressive he was and how Kotori was going to fall for him. Everyone thought this was getting really old now.

"Hm, my feelings of romance aren't reaching you yet. Perhaps a duel could convey my heart to you," Yuma said. He couldn't bear the thought that there was a girl out there who wasn't even the slightest bit interested in him. At least Kotori was somewhat drawn to him. If there was a girl out there who barely cared to give him the time of day, Yuma would completely lose it.

Kotori rolled her eyes as Yuma spoke. Did he really think she was going to fall for him with these rehearsed lines from the script he calls his heart? Kotori turned away from Yuma and managed to see a girl peeking out from the frame of the Host Club door.

"Hey, who's that?" Kotori said, getting the attention of the rest of the Host Club.

"That couldn't be," III said.

"I think it is," IV responded.

"Kaito, is that really who I think it is?" Haruto asked, pulling on his older brother's blazer.

"Maybe," Kaito replied. He decided to see if the girl at the door was who everyone thought it was. Sure, enough it was her.

The girl wore black pants with a matching three-quarter sleeved shirt and a belt with a silver buckle. Over her shirt she was an open silver vest with a small collar that stood up. The girl's brown hair was tied into a high pony tail, except for a two pieces she let down in the front.

Kaito offered the girl a rose and a gentle smile. "Welcome to the Host Club, Miss Kaiba."

The girl took the rose with a smirk. "Lovely," she said.

"Please, won't you come in," Kaito offered. He held gestured his hand inside the Host Club.

The girl took the offer and entered the Host Club. The heels of her boots clicked as she assessed the Host Club members. "So you boys are the Heartland Highschool Host Club," she said.

"That's right!" said Yuma. "And let me say, what an honor it is to have you here, my darling Kaiba Arishia." Yuma took the girl's free hand and knelt down on one knee. "Who knew the lovely daughter of the genius Kaiba Seto would be here to visit our little Host Club?"

Yuma brought his lips closer to Arishia's hand. However, the Kaiba girl pulled swiped her hand away from Yuma slapping him in the process.

"Two things; don't touch me and I'll only tolerate that kind of act with a real duelist," Arishia quickly said.

Yuma bolted up. All of the color drained from his face (except for the mark from when Arishia slapped him). Was his sweet words completely ignored by someone? More importantly, was he just referred to as a fake duelist? Yuma couldn't even say anything. The only thing that came out of his lips was a whine that kind of sounded like a puppy that needed to be let outside.

"Now that's harsh," III commented.

The Kaiba girl turned to the rest of the Host Club. "Now here are our real duelists!" Arishia started from the end of the line the Host Club form. "Tenjo Kaito, the Heartland Duel Carnival Champion. It's nice to see you again."

"Whoa, you know Ari-chan?" Haruto asked.

"That's right!" Arishia answered. "My dad had a business trip here in Heartland years ago. I tagged along with him, even though he didn't know that on the travel over here. You couldn't even speak the last time I saw you and now you're a grade higher than me! I think you're even cuter now than you were back then."

Haruto smiled brightly and gave a small, cute chuckle. "Thanks!"

"Tenjo Haruto, child prodigy and the Heartland Duel Carnival runner up. That's quite impressive, considering your brother's record only has one loss," Arishia said. She walked down the line of hosts to the twins. "And that loss is thanks to the older brother of you two. Arclight Michael." Arishia gestured to III. "And Arclight Thomas." She gestured to IV.

"There's no need for that kind of formality. I'm IV," the wild-haired boy said.

"And people call me III," the pink haired boy brightly informed.

"I'll make sure to remember that," Arishia said. "Both of you have great records. However Thomas's is a little more impressive. You're considered one of the best duelists in all of Asia and there's only one loss on your record thanks to him."

Arishia pointed at Ryoga. "Asia's Duel Champion, Kamishiro Ryoga."

Ryoga gave a polite smile. "That's right, Miss Kaiba. It's an honor having you at our Host Club."

Arishia crossed her arms and returned the smile. "It's my pleasure. I've always wanted to see a Host Club. A bunch of attractive guys in the same room has always sounded very appealing to me. However, the fact that a group of amazing duelists are all in the same Host Club makes this club much more appealing. I have to say, one of the main reasons I'm here is for you, Kamishiro. I'm a big fan."

A smirk appeared on Ryoga's face. "Is that so? It looks like that makes two of us. You're an amazing duelist, Miss Kaiba."

Arishia raised an eyebrow. "Really? That seems very unlikely for a character such as you."

"The same goes for you," Ryoga told the Kaiba girl.

The two smirked at each other. Both Ryoga and Arishia were considered two of the world's best duelists. Everyone in the Host Club knew entirely too well of both duelists skill. However, there was one host who wasn't exactly familiar with the dueling world.

"Excuse me," Kotori spoke up. "But why exactly are you so important, Miss Kaiba."

Arishia's eyes went wide as everyone else almost fell over with that comment. Yuma actually hit the ground with Kotori's words. He quickly shot up from the ground and grasped Kotori by the shoulders. "How could you not know who Kaiba Arishia is? Have you been living under a rock for your entire life?"

Kotori rolled her eyes at Yuma. It was this again. "I know she's the daughter of Kaiba Seto, CEO of Kaiba Corp. and inventor of the Duel Disk. But why is she such a big deal?"

Yuma fainted out of Kotori's ignorance. The remainder of the hosts stared in awe at their insane host with mouths agape. Two thoughts were racing through the hosts' heads. First, how was Kotori this ignorant toward the dueling world? Duel Monsters wasn't some game played in two countries by a hand full of people. It was the number one game in the world for all ages. Second, how could this so-called brilliant honors student show this disrespect toward Arishia Kaiba? Didn't Kotori know about the power this girl's father had?

Arishia looked at Kotori with a blank, icy stare. She cocked her head up slightly and crossed her arms. "You know, even though most girls don't duel they're not as sheltered toward the dueling world as you are," Arishia told Kotori almost smugly. The hosts gasped. This girl knew their secret.

"Furthermore," Arishia continued with a strict tone. "How are you even in this club? Besides the fact that you are a girl, that is. It's almost as if you never dueled, and yet you're associated with professional duelists and that guy on the floor. Aren't you supposed to duel with your guests at this host club? Do you even own a deck?"

The Kaiba girl smirked. "It's absolutely pathetic."

Kotori straightened her back and gave Arishia a hard stare. "You may be right about my knowledge toward the dueling world, but that gives you no right to speak to me in that egotistical manner. Everyone in the world doesn't know who you are and all you are is the daughter to someone who actually did something for the world. I'm here at the Host Club so I can pay off my debt and actually do something with my life, which is more than you'll end up doing with yours."

The Host Club did not believe what Kotori had just said. III and IV were on their knees trying to tell Kotori to beg for forgiveness. Haruto hid behind Kaito, afraid of what the daughter of Seto Kaiba would do next. Ryoga and Kaito stood in shock with Kotori's words. Yuma stood up off the ground only to faint once again.

Arishia's expression lightened as she chuckled. "You have a lot of guts. Now that's something impressive."

Everyone looked at Arishia with shock. She wasn't ready to destroy Kotori in some way, shape, or form? You'd think the daughter of Seto Kaiba would have some issue with someone talking back to them especially with the insults Kotori threw out.

"You're not mad?" III asked.

"I wasn't mad when she asked my importance in the world. As far as I'm concerned, the arguments that occurred after that meant nothing," Arishia answered. "It's very rare to find someone who will actually stand up to a person like me. Honestly, it's nice having a slight conflict than constantly having everyone follow your every word without question, no matter how idiotic it may be.

"With that said, it looks like you passed the test!" Arishia said. "Now, besides meeting this group of famous duelists, I would very much enjoy being a guest here at the Host Club."

Ryoga stepped forward. "Very well, Miss Kaiba. Usually, we don't wade on guests at this time, but I'm guessing you'll only be in Heartland for a short period of time. We'll make an exception for this occasion. Which Host would you like to spend your afternoon with?"

Arishia smiled. "I'd like to enjoy this afternoon with you, Kamishiro. You wouldn't happen to have anything sweet somewhere around here?"

Ryoga gave an honest smile. "Of course. Please follow me."

Ryoga led Arishia to private table away from the other member of the Host Club, who watched as the two disappeared for their appointment.

Yuma chuckled. "It's been a really long time since Shark has had a private guest."

Kotori looked up at Yuma. In her time of being a Host, she had never seen Ryoga with a guest. He was always on the sidelines writing in that black book he always carries around. "Aren't there guests who request Ryoga-senpai?"

"There are, but he always has excuses," IV said. "The one I hear the most is that he needs to keep an eye on Yuma, not that that excuse isn't valid."

"I don't think he wants to be bothered with a bunch of screaming girls," III chimed in. "However, he always has time when a certain guest comes around."

"Kamishiro Rio," IV sang. "Shark-senpai's adorable little sister. He cares about Rio-chan more than anything. He'd do anything to keep her safe."

"Especially from IV," III joked and elbowed his brother.

"Hey! I was her hero. Can't I give the damsel formerly in distress some of my fan service?"

"Ryoga-senpai's sister was in some kind of danger?" Kotori questioned.

Yuma hummed shortly. "Yeah, it was only last year," he said as the flames from the past swirled through his mind.

*.*.*.

_The entire middle school was encased with blistering flames. Students were being evacuated to a new location as the firemen entered the scene._

"_Rio! Where are you?" Shark shouted. He desperately scanned the area for his younger sister. The boy ran down from the highschool the moment he heard of the fire. "Rio!"_

_Shark couldn't see Rio anywhere. None of the students he asked knew where his sister was. Yuma, who wouldn't let his friend go through this alone, told Shark none of the teachers had seen Rio. Shark clenched his teeth. He didn't want to even think of this, but there was no other option. Rio was still trapped inside of the school._

_The two highschool students dashed toward the flaming middle school. They fought through throngs of students and teachers, desperately searching for Rio along the way. Yuma coughed as the smoke from the fire closed in. He and Shark prayed Rio would show up soon, but all of there wasn't a single student in sight now. The only people there was were the firemen and paramedics._

_Shark stopped. There was no way he could make it through the firemen without being noticed. He knew the entrance on the other side of the school had caved in and all of the windows were littered with flames._

"_Shark, she's probably with the rest of the school. There were a lot of students back there. We probably just missed her," Yuma told his friend._

_Yuma's word didn't help Shark's nerves at all. He didn't believe them in the slightest. Shark turned around and punched Yuma in the face, who fell to the ground. "Shut up! You know damn well that I would've found Rio if she made it out. If we weren't trapped in that abandon music room dealing with those idiotic girls in your damn club we would've heard about this sooner! I could've gotten to Rio if it weren't for that!"_

_Yuma felt guilty. This was partly his fault. News took a long time to float to the Host Club. It was a young club not many people were familiar with. However, he could the pain in Shark's eyes. He was acting on emotions, but who wouldn't in a situation like this._

_Shark looked back at the school. "I need to get in there."_

_Yuma wanted to stop his friend, but Shark was already mad at him. There was no chance he would listen. But there was no way Shark would miss the next words out of Yuma's mouth. "Look! Someone's coming out!"_

_Two figures were exiting the building. One was shuffling with the weight of another was dragging him down._

"_It's Rio," Shark breathed. He ran toward his sister and the other student, no longer caring about the firemen. As the boy carrying Rio came out of the building, Shark helped him support his sister. The two brought Rio to the paramedics._

_Shark looked at the boy. He was one of those twins Yuma invited to the Host Club last year, even though they would still be in the middle school while the other members were in the high school. It was Thomas Arclight, otherwise known as IV._

_*.*.*._

"That's how I got this." IV tapped the scar on his face. "I didn't even remember that I got hit until Shark-senapai pointed it out before leaving for the hospital."

"Rio's entire body was burned from that fire. It was unlikely that she was going to live," Yuma told Kotori. "I'm surprised Shark was still a host after that. Now, all news hits the Host Club first before the rest of the school knows it. Still, even though Shark stayed with the Host Club, he never accepted another request after that event."

Kotori felt as if she was ready to cry. Ryoga almost lost his sister to a fire. It seems as though he also found the Host Club as a big waste of time. Why is Ryoga still a member of the Host Club?

"Rio-chan is a lot better now. She was out of school for the rest of the year, but she came back after a week this year started," Haruto said. "She likes to come around to the Host Club to see Shark-chan. She's the closest thing Shark has ever had to a regular guest. The Host Club only started last year and the fire hit about a month into school that same year, so Shark-chan never had the chance to have a regular guest."

"Wow." It was the only thing Kotori could think to say. She looked over to where Ryoga and Arishia had disappeared to. This was Ryoga's first guest ever since the Host Club began. Kotori couldn't help but wonder how the appointment was working out.

III and IV slid up behind Kotori. "Someone's curious."

"So, do you wanna go see how Shark's doing with his guest?" IV asked.

"Well, I am pretty curious," Kotori admitted. "But won't he notice us watching him? I'm pretty sure Miss Kaiba would pick up on that too. She did figure out that I'm a girl after all."

"That's right," III said. "Well, it looks like we'll have to ask her how she figured that out! We'll bring that tray of sweets and do some appointment crashing."

III scooped up a tray of small candies and walked off toward Ryoga's appointment with IV right beside him. Kotori sighed and reluctantly followed the boys. Something told her that she needed to watch over the twins in case they did something stupid.

The twins stopped as they heard something that wasn't possible. Shark just _laughed._ This wasn't one of his "I'm laughing because you give us money" laughs. This was a real, honest laugh. Who knew Shark could actually have a good time? He even had Arishia laughing. From where the twins were standing, it looked like she was smiling as well. Something about the daughter of Seto Kaiba, the guy who would, at most, smirk when his opponent was being crushed, and smiling didn't compute.

Kotori, on the other hand, didn't see anything unusual in this picture. She hasn't been around the Host Club long enough to realize some of the habits the Hosts made (besides the fact Ryoga always reminded her about her debt). The girl took the tray of sweets out of III's hands and brought it into the room.

"Here you go, Miss Kaiba," Kotori brightly said with a smile. "I believe you wanted some sweets. We decided to bring you a more extensive assortment to choose from."

Arishia politely smiled. "How thoughtful of you." The Kaiba girl took the entire tray from Kotori and picked one of the chocolates. "By the way, congradulations on entering Heartland Academy. However, I'm not sure on how you're in the top class. To my understanding, there's a duel as a part of the exam as well as Duel History. I can see you barely winning the duel and passing the history test with an average score, but in that vision you wouldn't be in the top class."

Arishia ate the piece of chocolate and reached for another sweet. Kotori was annoyed by the Kaiba girl's comment. How could these damn rich people bluntly insult a person and go on with their next actions as if a harmless comment? Kotori almost snapped back at Arishia, but she knew that that talking back to the Kaiba girl this time wouldn't be smart.

"It was Duel History. Everything was on people like the King of Games, the creator of duel monsters, Duel Disks, and a few questions on Ancient Egypt. There wasn't anything about dueling today," Kotori explained. "Also, I do know how to duel. It was only an entrance exam duel, so the deck was pretty easy to scope out and find the flaws."

Arishia swallowed the sweet. "Do you still duel?"

"No. I haven't had the need to ever since the entrance exam," Kotori answered.

"Can you count how many times you dueled before the exam?"

Kotori hummed. "Well, I know I dueled a few times as a child, but I don't have a number. From what I can remember, I've participated in 5 duels not counting the exam."

Arishia licked the sugar off of the next sweet she chose. "You finished your entrance exam duel with less than 1000 life points and the score on the test was a high B."

"Actually it was a low A," Ryoga corrected with his black book opened.

Kotori growled. This girl sure did have an ego. It was as if she wanted to remind Kotori that she's a step below everyone else. It sure reminded the honors student about another cunning mind that ran the Host Club.

"So Miss Kaiba, how did you figure out Kotori was a girl?" Ryoga asked.

The other members of the Host Club stepped into the room (it looked like they were all stalked Ryoga's appointment). However Yuma was nowhere to be seen.

"It wasn't that hard to figure out, honestly," Arishia said. "Her face lacked the rough exterior of a guy's face. Not to mention that her height didn't really help out, but some people can overlook that by saying that he hasn't reached his growth spurt. However, it was the pitch of Miss Mizuki's voice that gave it all away. The pitch of her was too high to be a boy's."

"Impressive," Ryoga commented. "I'm guessing you play an instrument since you based that deduction on pitch, am I correct?"

Arishia smirked. "That's correct."

The boys and Arishia began to talk about dueling. Kotori decided it was best to leave now. Arishia was right when she said Kotori didn't know much about dueling. As she left the area, Kotori could hear Yuma talking to someone. When the King came into view, it turned out Yuma was actually talking to himself.

"Yes, I am." Yuma paused. "I don't need to become one! I already am a real duelist!" He paused again. "I don't know! She just has… high standards or something like that." Pause. "Hey! You're the one who comes up with my strategies!" Pause. "Well, they're yours then why do you keep giving them to me?"

_I'm now fully convinced he's crazy_, Kotori told herself. "Um, Yuma-senpai?" she spoke up.

Kotori managed to catch Yuma's attention. "Ah, Kotori! I see you're here to hang out with a _real_ duelist like myself, right?"

"Well I'm actually trying to get away from all of the duel talk," Kotori said. "Senpai, who were you talking to a moment ago?"

Yuma had a bit of shock on his face. He didn't know Kotori could hear him. However, Yuma wasn't fazed for long. "I was talking to Astral," he answered as if he said that hundreds of times before.

Kotori raised an eyebrow. Was Astral like some imaginary friend? "Astral? Who's he?"

"He's the spirit who lives in my key," Yuma said. He reached around his neck to show Kotori the same key he forgot to take off during their physical examine plot. "It's called the Emperor's Key. My parents gave it to me as a present after one of their adventures."

Kotori forgot about Yuma's mental issues as she gazed at the key. It was a beautiful golden pendant with a small green gem at the top. The key was shaped like a triangle with the point facing the ground and three slits on each side. It was a brilliantly crafted treasure. Kotori wondered how someone on Earth managed to craft such a treasure.

Kotori's attention was drawn away from the key as she heard footsteps. She looked over toward the door to see the famous Seto Kaiba walking toward the Host Club.

"Yuma, we have someone coming," Kotori whispered.

The King looked toward the doorway. Seto Kaiba was coming to the Host Club! Yuma wondered why, but then he remembered about their current guest. "I guess he's looking for Arishia."

Yuma and Kotori straightened up to look presentable for Seto Kaiba. Both Hosts could feel the palms of their hands begin to sweat. Neither of them had ever met the CEO of Kaiba. Corp, but they've heard rumors of him. One of the coldest, most intimidating people on the planet was coming into the Host Club and he didn't look happy. Then again, you can't put the words "Seto Kaiba" and "happy" in the same sentence without "is never" in between.

"Hello Mr. Kaiba," Yuma greeted as the man stepped into the room. "How may we help you this afternoon?"

"Where is my daughter?" Seto said as if it were a piece of business.

"She's in the other room. I'll go get her right now," Kotori told him with a frail voice. She could speak to Arishia without a problem, but that was because she knew nothing about the Kaiba girl. This was Seto Kaiba. Everyone knew about him.

Kotori wanted to get out of the room. Seto Kaiba was an intimidating person. The honors student scurried back to the rest of the Hosts.

"Miss Kaiba, your father is here," Kotori said, her voice still a bit shaken. "I believe he wishes to see you."

Arishia's eyes widen for a split second. "I never told him I was here," she muttered. "Thank you, I'll be right out."

Arishia rose from her seat and took lead back to the main room with the Hosts on her heels. At the moment, the girl was praying that her father wouldn't be too upset with her.

The group returned to the main entrance of the Host Club. Sure enough, Seto was there with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. Yuma, who had been left alone, would never be a good poker player. His nervousness was molded onto his face as he gave the hosts a smile that asked them to save their King.

"Hey Dad," Arishia greeted as if nothing was going on.

Seto ignored all pleasantries and glared down at his daughter. "First, you sneak onto the jet to Heartland and then you run off to some club with all of these idiotic boys? Not only do you come to this club, there aren't any other guests besides you."

Arishia stood up straight with her arms crossed. She wore a look of business on her face and confronted her father. "I'm not the only girl in the room, and even if I was I know how to defend myself. Moreover, I just wanted to meet all these duelists."

"And they just all so happen to be in a _Host Club_?" Seto said matter of factly. "Do you honestly think that I would believe that a room of 'attractive' boys, duelists or not, doesn't sound the least bit appealing to my teenage daughter?"

_Well he's got me there,_ Arishia thought. She bit the inside of her cheek. "So it appeals to me. Is there a problem with that?"

"Yes, but I can't help that. The problem is that you left without my consent."

"You didn't even know I was on the jet and you would've said no if I asked."

"And so you still came knowing I disapproved."

Arishia clenched her teeth and made a nearly silent sound of shock. She had lost this battle. There was no way Arishia could stop her Dad now.

"You're coming with me now, Arishia," Seto strictly told his daughter. "As for this club, enjoy it while it lasts."

The Hosts gasped. Was Seto Kaiba really going to make sure the Host Club fell to the ground?

"Dad!" Arishia shouted. "How could you do such a thing? They didn't do anything!"

"Why does it matter? They already have careers in dueling, they can play with the hearts of their fans after competitions," Seto said without care. "Besides, what power do you have to stand up against me?"

"She has my power, Mr. Kaiba," Ryoga told him.

The members of the Host Club and Arishia looked at Ryoga in shock as he stepped forward to confront Seto Kaiba. What the hell was he thinking?

"Really? And what power do you have? A bunch of pathetic fans and your family's company?" Seto teased. "Do you honestly believe that would be enough?"

"Perhaps," Ryoga answered with a smirk. "But I'll have those fans backing me up and the guests of the Host Club. More importantly, I'll have my fellow Hosts on my side, most with impressive family." Kotori growled knowing Ryoga was talking about her once again. "Not to mention, your daughter will be on my side and I'm sure there will be plenty who will rally behind her."

Seto glared down at Ryoga. This kid really had the audacity to stand up to one of the most powerful businessmen in the world.

"If you're going to create a huge ordeal over this small club I won't bother. I'm not going to waste that much of my time on this," Seto said. He turned and began to head out of the room. "Arishia, if you're not back by the time the jet departs I'm leaving you."

Arishia smiled as her dad left. "Alright, see you later!"

Once Seto had left the sight of the Host Club it was deemed safe to talk.

"Ryoga, what the hell were you think? You could've been murder and no one would even remember you were if that turned out wrong!" Yuma shouted. "I could never act like you don't exist then the same thing would've happened to me and who could forget me? I'm unforgettable and-"

"Shut up Yuma," Ryoga said. "I knew what I was doing."

"Really?" the twins questioned.

"I honestly thought you no longer cared for your life," IV said.

"Or at the very least your family's business," III added.

"I already told you that I knew what I was doing," Ryoga reminded the Hosts. "Sometimes, a person with power tires of everyone constantly agreeing with their plans, no matter how idiotic they may be." Ryoga smirked. "Right, Miss Kaiba?"

The Kaiba girl rolled her eyes. "You're really an idiot to think that would work on everyone. Some people do want everyone to follow every order. However," Arishia gave Ryoga a look of gratitude. "my Dad does follow that same rule I do. Thank you Ryoga."

"Anytime Arishia."

Arishia said her farewells to the Host Club. Her father was going to leave soon and being left alone in Heartland didn't seem like much fun. The Host Club waved goodbye as Arishia left.

"Hey, where did that tray of sweets go?" Haruto mentioned.

The Hosts looked at each other and then out the door. Somehow, they knew Arishia was there candy thief. How didn't they notice her carry an entire tray of candy out of the door?

*.*.*.

The Host Club decided not to create a unique scenery for their room today and stick with its classic look. Young ladies swooned over their favorite Host as they gave their guests some fan service.

"Well, she managed to eat half of the sweets on a tray that would take up half of this table!" IV told his guests.

"It's true," III said. "Miss Kaiba even took the remainder of the sweets with her when she left."

"Wow, I can't believe you guys actually got to meet Kaiba Arishia!" one of the guests exclaimed.

"Was she as intimidating as her father like some say?" another guest questioned.

"Yeah, she was pretty harsh at first, but it was all a test," said III.

"After that she was really cool," IV added. "I hope we get to see her again soon."

Kotori stood by the sidelines overlooking the Host Club. "Wow, it seems like the guests really like hearing about our day with Arishia."

"Well, a lot of people love hearing stories about famous people," Yuma said as he walked up beside Kotori. He gave a light chuckle. "You know, I wish I could've dueled her yesterday. It would've been so cool!"

Kotori smiled. Yuma could possibly be mental, but he would never change. The honors student looked over her shoulder to see if any guests had arrived.

"Hey guys, look who it is!" Kotori announced.

The Hosts looked toward the entrance to the Host Club to see Arishia Kaiba standing there wearing a second year uniform and a smirk. "So, did you miss me?"

"Looks like the Kaiba girl returned," the twins said.

"Arishia!" Haruto cried and ran toward the girl with a hug, who returned the gesture smiling.

"Well it looks like you missed me. I thought you were calling me Ari-chan?" Arishia scooped the young boy up in her arms. "I love your dragon. It's a Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, right?"

"That's right! Not many people know that," Haruto said.

"Well, I know quite a lot when it comes to dragons."

"Welcome back Arishia. I'm guessing your taking up the offer from yesterday," Ryoga said, not looking up from his black book.

"Offer?" Yuma asked.

"That's right. Before our appointment was overrun with the other Hosts Ryoga and I were talking about me possibly being a sponsor for the Host Club," Arishia explained. "Of course, that means I had to enroll in your school. It looks like I'll be in some of your classes, Ryoga."

Kotori looked at Arishia in shock. "How did you get into the school overnight? It took weeks for my dad and I go through all of the paper."

Arishia gave Kotori a smirk. "My dad is one of the most influential people on this planet. Not to mention that I probably have more money than anyone in this entire school. It's a lot easier doing business quickly with someone like me compared to a commoner. By the way Kotori, how's it going with your debt?"

Arishia gave Kotori a false smile. The honors student shivered. _She's just like Ryoga!_

Yuma gave a bright, welcoming smile to Arishia. "In that case, welcome Arishia to Heartland Highschool Host Club!"

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

A/N: I am so proud of this chapter! This is the first chapter of anything I've ever written with this length without using an episode to guide me! I really hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did!

In other news, I think I'll only update once a month T_T

At least the chapters are pretty long. How does the 24th of each month sound to you guys?

I can't wait until next time! Until then!


	5. Chapter 5

Surprisingly, nothing unusual happened today. Classes went uninterrupted, the Host Club tended to their guests in a normal environment, and now Kotori found herself walking home without the slightest distraction. However, the honors student knew that something was wrong here. This was way too quiet.

Suddenly, Kotori was grabbed from behind.

"Target."

"Captured."

III and IV held Kotori captive as a limo rolled up in front of them. One of the windows rolled down. Yuma sat inside the limo with sunglasses on and a lei around his neck. "Good job boys. Now, let's head out!"

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

"Senpai, where are we?" Kotori asked. She had been taken to some kind of tropical paradise. Kotori stood on a beach that surrounded a large pool of water. Within the pool were various smaller pools with different features such as a current and pool rings so you could simply float around or tubes that allowed you to travel at high speeds and splash into water.

Surrounding the water area was the white sand beach with lounge chairs and umbrella's scatter throughout the area. Outside of the beach were nice stone walkways which lead to various establishments to meet simple needs of every guest. Of course this wouldn't be a tropical paradise if it wasn't for the vast jungle around the entire area and the perfect sunlight coming from the glass ceiling.

Yuma sat stood up from his chair from right next to where Kotori was standing. "Behold Kotori. Look at all of the tropical birds. Aren't they lovely? Do you have any idea what they're called?" Yuma said softly.

"That doesn't answer my question. We're in Japan still, right? Because Japan isn't known for its tropical local," Kotori pointed out. "Anyway, where's the exit? I need to get home."

Yuma sat back down in his chair and picked up an orange colored drink. "Come on Kotori. Take advantage of this down time and relax. It's a hassle keeping up with our good looks all of the time so don't we deserve a little vacation?"

Kotori rolled her eyes. "You may have the time to relax, but I don't. I need to study and there's a ton of laundry I need to do. As I said before, I should really get home now. Senapi, where are we anyway?"

The honors student turned around to see that Yuma had fallen asleep. Kotori could feel a bead of sweat form on the back of her head. Yuma was even snoring for crying out loud! Deciding she wouldn't get anything out of Yuma, Kotori wondered around to find someone else. She managed to find Ryoga lounging on a chair with his own drink.

"Ryoga-senapai, where exactly are we?" Kotori asked hoping to finally get an answer.

Ryoga took a sip of his drink before answering. "This is a theme park my family, the Kamishiro Group, runs. It's called the Tropical Aqua Garden."

"I'm lost. I thought the Kamishiro Group ran hospitals and that you're focused in the field of medicine," Kotori stated.

"That is true, however my family likes to diversify in the establishments they build," Ryoga explained. "This could be classified as a healing facility, though. It has a very therapeutic atmosphere. Think about all of the people that are over worked and would like a vacation in the south tropics. However, they may not be able to get the time off or afford the cost of the trip. Those people can come here to recover from their stress and seek refuge here. Besides, the Kamishiro Group's main interest has always been to help the general public."

_It sounds suspicious to me,_ Kotori thought. _If the Kamishiro Group was so focused on the general public, than why does Ryoga-senpai keep torturing me with my debt? I'm reminded that I'm part of the general public every day, but I still seem to be suffering._

"The resort doesn't open for another month, but the Host Club was given a special advanced invitation," Ryoga added. Kotori was ready to complain about wanting to leave, but she was stopped. "Just enjoy the vacation Kotori. It's very relaxing here and we don't have to entertain anyone. Think of it like Yuma does. This is a holiday for handsome young duelist."

Kotori sighed. She might as well give into this down time since there was no way she'd be going home any time soon. Besides, all of the boys were in their swim trunks having a good time (besides Ryoga who decided to where a tropical shirt).

The twins were throwing a beach ball around in the pool and Kaito held Haruto up on his shoulder to let the young boy get a good look around (plus, it's just fun being a lot higher up compared to your own height).

Kotori decided to get a better look around the place. She didn't really get a chance earlier when the twins dragged her in this resort and straight to the changing room.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

"Do what you have to do!" III and IV said as they passed Kotori off to Arishia.

The girl smiled mischievously. "Don't worry Kotori, I'll help you find something you'll just love."

Before Kotori to object to whatever this activity was, Arishia dragged Kotori into a large changing room filled with racks of bathing suits. Brightly colored one pieces, bikinis, and everything more or less than that filled the racks.

"So, do you see anything you like? Or would you like some ideas on what to wear?" Arishia asked.

"Chose anything you like!" III called out.

"Our dad is close friends with the owner of Heartland! We were able to get all of the latest styles of bathing suits for you to choose from!" IV added.

Yuma crept up behind the twins in hopes of hearing what was going on behind the closed doors. What would that Kaiba girl have Kotori wear? She may know Duel Monsters, but what does she know about fashion? Then again, girls usually do have a good sense of fashion. Yuma prayed Arishia would pick out something cute for his little girl to wear.

Arishia selected a hot pink two piece and showed it to Kotori. "This is pretty cute. I think pink is a good color for you!"

"No. could you please find something a little more covering than that?" Kotori asked.

Yuma leaned closer to the door as he eavesdropped on the conversation. His hormones went into over drive as he pictured Kotori in a bikini running toward him. Yuma's mind even animated the word "Boing!" around Kotori's newly enlarged breasts as they bounced due to her running.

"Then how about this!" Arishia offered.

Kotori made a sound out of shocked and stared at Arishia's choice for a moment. "B-but that's just a bunch of strings!"

At that moment, Yuma fainted with a streak of blood leading from his nose to the corner of his mouth. III and IV stared at their king as they heard Arishia laughing in the background.

"I hope he realizes she's joking," III commented.

"Really? I hope he isn't a closet pervert," IV said.

Arishia and Kotori continued to search for some kind of swim suit the honors student would actually wear. Finally, Kotori agreed to wear a cotton candy pink one piece with a small tutu around the waist and, much to her dismay, the matching cap. Kotori emerged from the changing room with her swim suit to see a calm, collective, nose bleed-less Yuma standing to the side of the building.

Yuma observed Kotori's outfit out of the corner of his eye. It may not have been his hormonal, disproportionately sized fantasy, but Kotori looked so damn cute. It wasn't helping that the girl looked up at Yuma innocently with those sparkling eyes. The Host Club King could feel his entire face fill with blush.

Yuma looked the other direction and held out a baggy yellow sweat shirt and a pair of plaid, green shorts for Kotori. "Here," he almost mumbled. "Just, put this on instead."

Kotori looked up at Yuma now with a surprised look. Of all people, he's the one who wanted her to change out of the swim suit?

"A young lady should not show that much skin until after she's married," Yuma added.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Kotori smiled slightly thinking about Yuma gesture. She wasn't that comfortable wearing a swim suit in front of the Host Club just yet. She hadn't been in the club that long. Who knows what weird, perverted fetishes some of these boys have?

"Tori-chan!" Haruto called out as he grabbed onto the girl's arm. "Do you wanna eat some mango cake with me or have some kind of fruit drink?"

Kotori smiled at the young boy. He's the only one who wouldn't have his mind in the gutter. Haruto is too pure for that! "Sure! I'd love to have some cake with you!"

"Yeah!" Haruto cheered. The young boy ran off, probably preparing the cake.

III and IV, who was chewing on a banana, walked up behind Kotori. "Hey Kotori, wanna check out the water slide?" they called out.

"Wait a second, what's up the yellow monstrosity? I thought we had Arishia pick out a swim suit for you?" IV asked.

"Oh this," Kotori said as she touched the sweat shirt. "Yuma gave it to me when I came out of the dressing room."

"So, we're not going to swim?" IV said as he threw his banana peel to the side. "You do realize this place is a water resort, right? Do you even swim?"

"I can swim!" Kotori snapped. "I was just following Yuma's orders. Honestly, I'd rather be at home right now. Unlike you guys, I have to clean my house be myself."

"Come on Kotori! Forget about all that and have some fun for once! It's like you're against having a good time or something." III said.

"I can have fun!" Kotori insisted. "You don't need a resort to have fun. A plastic pool would do just as good."

"A plastic pool?" the twins said.

Kotori rolled her eyes. She should have known better. These guys wouldn't need to buy something cheap like a plastic pool when they have enough money to buy a factory that makes pools. Kotori sighed. "It's the kind of pool you can blow up and it doesn't cost that much money."

"Are you talking about an inflatable boat?" III asked. "Why would you swim in something that small?"

"It's a small pool!"

Yuma pulled the twins away from Kotori and huddled together. "Come on guys! You're making Kotori look bad! If she says it's a pool then it's a pool!"

"Fine, if you say so," IV said. "Hey, I've got a question. Why did you make Kotori wear that thing? I honestly thought you'd be all, 'I wanna see Kotori in a bathing suit!'"

"Hey! My voice does not sound that high! And I don't whine like that!" Yuma whined just as IV perfectly displayed.

"Wait a second, could he be one of those jealous pervert types?" III and IV loudly whispered to each other. "He doesn't want anyone else to see Kotori in a bathing suit so he could have her all to himself. Isn't that twisted?"

"That's not it!" Yuma shouted while flailing his arms. "I was trying to protect her just as any father or guardian would! She's an innocent girl and that innocence should be protected at all costs! Besides, it's not decent for a young lady to be half-naked in front of a bunch of boys!"

"This is quite an odd display, Yuma." The boy growled and turned as a blue spirit emerged from the key around his neck.

"What are you talking about Astral?"

"Well, isn't it normal for a teenage boy to want a female to strip off as much clothing as possible for them?" the blue spirit asked.

"No! No, that's not even close!" Yuam yelled in a panic.

"Oh, are upset that after Kotori revealed herself her breasts weren't at the right measurement for your pleasure?"

"Shut up! You're such a pervert!"

Astral ignored Yuma. "Perhaps you weren't happy with the size of her bottom? That's an important quality for a teenage boy as well, correct?"

"Astral!" Yuma shouted.

Kotori watched the display from afar. Her eyebrow twitched as she observed Yuma yelling at thin air. "Would someone please tell me why this boy isn't in a mental institution?"

"It's because Yuma-chan isn't seeing things," Haruto said as he came up by Kotori's side. "There really is someone there. It's a spirit from Yuma's key called Astral."

Kotori blinked. She didn't believe what Haruto was saying. Was he being a gullible kid and just going along with what Yuma was saying? Or did he really know something she didn't.

"Believe him." Kotori jumped as she heard Kaito speak. "Haruto knows better than to talk about things as if they really exist. He has the ability to see what we can't."

Kotori blinked again. Was Kaito serious? She sighed and decided just to go with it, not that her opinion about Yuma's sanity had changed.

"Hey Tori-chan, would you like to go in the current pool with Kaito and me?" Haruto asked brightly.

"Nah, I don't really want to go swimming today," Kotori said. She glanced downward to see a galaxy designed pool ring. "Hey, why do you have that ring? Don't you already know how to swim?"

"Yeah," Haruto said. "It just looks cuter this way!"

Kotori giggled as Haruto ran off to the current pool with Kaito following close behind. "It really is cuter like that. What an innocent kid." Yuma, III, and IV nodded their heads in agreement.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that." Arishia said from behind the group. The boys and Kotori turned around with a confused look on their faces. "Our adorable little friend has some hidden motives behind that act that is seemingly meaningless."

Ryoga came up to the group. "I have to agree with Arishia. Try putting the word 'I' in front of that sentence."

The twins, Yuma, and Kotori looked up into the sky in deep thought. They re-thought the sentence Haruto had just said. "It just looks cuter this way! _I_ just look cuter this way!"

The four gasped. "How cunning!"

"Something says that Haruto doesn't want a certain member of the Host Club to replace his place as the cute one. Yuma was fangirling when Kotori was in her bathing suit," Ryoga said.

"Was not!" Yuma whined.

Kotori shook her head at the boys and turned her attention elsewhere. She decided it was about time to talk with a girl instead of the rest of these idiots. "So Arishia, are you enjoying the Host Club?"

"Yeah, it's awesome along with the rest of Heartland. I haven't been here since I was a little girl. Dad doesn't like me leaving Neo Domino with or without his knowledge of it," Arishia said. "You know, that bathing suit from earlier is still in the changing room. You could change back into it."

"I don't think I'll do that," Kotori replied.

"Oh, so you want to please Yuma," Arishia said with a smirk. "I think he'd really be pleased if you worse that swimsuit."

Kotori's face flushed. "Wh-what are you talking about? I'm not here to please Yuma!"

Arishia laughed at Kotori's reaction. "Sure, that's why you immediately followed his little request when he couldn't handle the fact you looked pretty cute in that swimsuit." Kotori continued to yell at Arishia who teased her in return.

"Hey Arishia-senpai," IV said and snapped the girls out of their quarrel. "What's up with your outfit?"

Kotori examined Arishia's outfit. She didn't get a real chance to notice what the Kaiba girl was wearing during their argument. Just like everyone else in the Host Club, Arishia had an actual bathing suit. The top piece looked like the American flag while the bottom was just solid red. It was a fairly average swimsuit. However, it was the brown bomber jacket that stood out in Arishia's outfit.

"My friend made it for me. He likes to design clothes in his spare time," Arishia explained. "You could say that I'm cosplaying. He did use the genderbent version of a certain character as inspiration to this outfit."

"So you're an otaku?" IV asked.

Arishia's eye twitched. "I'm being a nice friend. He'd be upset if I didn't wear the things he designs from me," Arishia said with clenched teeth.

"Whoa! You can be nice? But I thought you were a Kaiba!"

"And I thought you enjoyed living." Arishia smirked and reached into her jacket.

"She's got a gun!" the twins yelled running off to safety.

Kotori and Yuma looked over to see that the "gun" was actually a water gun. However, considering Arishia seemed pretty pissed, it could have been used as a lethal weapon.

"I'm getting milkshake," Arishia grumbled and marched off.

III and IV didn't get that far away from Arishia. In fact, they were close enough to see the rest of the scene play out. It gave the two boys a mischievous idea. The twins found weapons of their own and a third for a possible player in their game.

Yuma could hear a subtle pumping noise coming from not too far away. He looked to the side and was met with a stream of water.

"Gotcha," IV sang.

"Hey Boss, let's have a water gun fight!" III said brightly. "It'd be you versus me and IV. If you get hit in the face you lose. What do you say?"

"No," Yuma answered. "Why would I want to play in a childish game like that?"

The twins were shocked by Yuma's answer. Why wouldn't he want to participate in a childish game like a water gun fight? Everyone loves water gun fights. However, the twins didn't let the King's answer put them off for too long.

The two boys pranced over to each side of Kotori and swung her back and forth with sly smiles on their faces.

"Hey Kotori, I think we should get married!" IV said loudly.

"Then we can go honey moon somewhere exotic! Where in the world would you like to travel?" III added.

Yuma's blood boiled at the words from the twins. He picked up a water gun and began to pump it as if he needed to save a life. "Do you really think I'd let Kotori marry guys like you? You'll be sorry." It was amazing how easy it was to get Yuma mad this fast. The twins and Kotori could barely believe it. "Daddy says no!"

Kotori decided to avoid this mess. It wasn't like she wanted to get wet considering she had no idea where her uniform was. She sat down next to Arishia and enjoyed a drink. Kaito walked up to her. You could tell he had just been in the pool by looking at the water droplets that glistened on his toned body. Kotori looked over to the pool to see Haruto floating in the water.

"Taking a break?" she asked.

"Yeah," Kaito answered.

Back at the war, Yuma quickly dodged the water bullets being project from the twins' weapons. In return, the twins cleverly dodged Yuma's water bullets. Of course, since it was 1 vs. 2, the twins had the obvious advantage. However, III and IV weren't ones to end their game quickly. They had to mess with their prey before the kill.

Yuma sent a wave of water toward the twins, who retaliated with tiki shields. Yuma growled. "That's cheating!" The King jumped back, but stepped on a banana peel. He looked down in horror before sliding backwards across the resort. The banana stuck to the ground and made Yuma stumbled forward and crash into a large totem pole.

The eyes of the totem pole began to glow red. Kaito's head snapped back toward the pool. Kotori looked up at the older boy with a question on her face. Then she saw it. A large wave of water roared as it tore through the pool. It was headed right toward Haruto! Then wave landed on the young boy and sent his pool ring flying. He was nowhere to be seen.

"Haruto!" Kaito called out. He ran toward the pool in hopes of finding his brother, but fell after tripping on the same banana peel Yuma slid on.

Kotori gasped. Since when did Kaito do foolish things like Yuma would do?

"Listen up everyone!" Yuma announced. "We're going to go after Haruto-senpai!" He pointed to a current pool. "That pool looks like the fastest way to go! Move out!" Yuma, Kotori, Kaito, and the twins ran toward the pool.

"Wait, I wouldn't go into that pool!" Ryoga called out.

The group didn't hear Ryoga's words and jumped toward the pool. As they were jumping, alligator rose from under the water. The group changed their direction with a scream (minus Kaito) mid-jump and dashed the other direction.

"Okay then," Yuma panted. "Let's try this way!"

The group charged again into a forest looking area. However, they were stop once again by a swarm of alligators. They were coming from every direction! Soon enough they'd start falling from the sky!

"What's with all these alligators?" Kotori asked as she regained her breath.

"No clue," Yuma said.

"The alligators are a part of the park's tropical animal exhibit. I suppose letting them run lose was isn't good for the safety of the people. However, our current predicament seems to be due to the location of the switch for the current pool. I'll have to have a chat with our designers about that," Rygoa explained as he snapped the book he was taking notes with shut.

"What?!" the twins, Kotori, and Yuma shouted. It seems like they were used as lab rats.

"Well, you guys should follow me. There's a map of the resort over here," Ryoga said.

Everyone followed Ryoga to the map. He pointed to various locations on the map while explaining the new plan. "We're here and, judging by the direction of the water, Haruto should be somewhere over here. The most direct route would to cut through the jungle, but it could be a tough route to travel."

"There seems to be a lot of undeveloped areas," Arishia pointed out. "Do you have any idea what could be out there?"

"I don't have the slightest clue," Ryoga said.

"He acts like it's nothing," III said.

"But whatever is out there could be worse than alligators!" IV added.

"Listen up!" Yuma announced and brought everyone into a huddle. "This just turned into a mission of survival! It is our sworn duty to recover Haruto-senpai at all costs! Let's go!"

The group cheered and set off in their journey. The jungle in the resort felt like the real thing. It was sticky and warm. Not to mention that there were sounds of all kinds of animals indigenous to the jungle that could be heard all around. It sounded like the real thing. Ryoga said his family strived for authenticity no matter the cost. Everyone else thought it would be funny to see Ryoga get attack by some of his "authenticity".

Kotori looked up at Kaito. No matter how hard she tried, it was impossible to read his face. However, she knew that he was worrying about Haruto's safety.

Suddenly, there was a loud crash. Everyone turned around to see that Kaito had slipped on a random banana peel that was lying around in the forest.

"Oh no! Kaito-senpai is acting just as clumsy as you do, Boss!" IV said.

"Shut up!" Yuma shouted.

_I knew it. He's really worried about Haruto-senpai,_ Kotori thought.

As Kaito rose, another softer crash was heard. The Hosts looked up as the sky grew dark. Ryoga, on the other hand looked down at his watch.

"Looks like it's time to find some shelter," he said.

Ryoga took the lead and showed the group to a small hut. Once everyone was in the hut, the rain began to fall.

Kotori sat down and relaxed. This seemed like the only time she actually had the chance to calm down. Some vacation this was. Silence draped over the Hosts, which was very odd considering Yuma was there. Kotori decided to break that silence.

"Hey Kaito-senpai, you and Haruto seem very close. I know you guys are brothers and all, but is there any other reason for your bond?"

"You mean you've never heard?" III asked with shock.

"About their story?" IV finished.

Kotori looked up at the twins. "No. What story are you guys talking about?"

"Kaito-senpai, you don't mind if we tell the story?" Ryoga asked. Kaito hummed in response, which was taken as permission granted. "It was years ago. Haruto wasn't even two, but it was obvious how weak he was. The Tenjo's father is a scientist. He worked at all hours of the day to find a way to give Haruto some strength. However, there was a complication in the matter."

"The whole operation exploded," Arishia continued. "Everything seemed like a lost cause, but somehow Haruto received the power he needed. The problem was it was too much. Haruto's couldn't take it alone. So, Kaito made a bond with Haruto and took some of his power."

"Now that power courses through Kaito's veins. The power of a loyal brother," Yuma finished.

"It so beautiful!" the twins cried out.

Kotori rolled her eyes at the twins. They were overacting. The honors student looked over to Kaito. He stared out into the jungle silently as the rain fell. Kotori didn't understand this power, but she didn't need to in order to understand the bond between these two brothers.

The honors student looked over to Yuma. Her eyes wondered down to the pendant still around his neck. Was the power Haruto held the reason he can also see that spirit living in Yuma's pendant?

Kotori walked up to Kaito and placed a hand on his arm to get the older boy's attention. "Kaito-senpai, I'm sure everything will be okay. Haruto sounds like he's a strong kid. He'll be fine out there. Besides, if he gets hungry there are plenty of bananas in the trees."

Kaito smiled down at Kotori. He placed a hand on the honors student's head as affectionate form of appreciation. She was a very thoughtful girl.

Yuma stared over at the two in slight horror. "Is Kaito-senpai trying to steal my place as Kotori's daddy?"

"Um Boss, no one wants that spot except for you," III said.

"It's pretty creepy when you look at it," IV commented.

"What?" Yuma shouted.

"You're a big old perv!" the twins sang as they mocked their King. It was an activity that would never get old.

Arishia smirked at the show. "Does this happen a lot around here?"

"It varies from day to day, but for the most part yes," Ryoga answered. A ringing chimed from Ryoga's pocket. It was his D-Gazer. He pulled out the device and began to speak. "It's me… Yeah, we've had an incident that has caused just a bit of trouble… Do you really need to ask who set it off?"

Arishia's smirk lightened into a soft smile. _Stuff like this happens all of the time, huh?_

Outside the rain began to lighten up. As soon as it stopped completely, Kaito set out immediately in search of Haruto. Kotori chased after Kaito.

"Senpai! You're going the wrong direction!" she called out.

Kaito followed his instincts and continued his path. "You're wrong," he said.

"Wait! It's too dangerous! I'm coming with you!"

The flaw in our brilliant honors student plan was running after Kaito with no plan at all. Kotori barely walked ten steps before she almost ran into some snakes. After that she nearly missed a plant swarmed with bugs. Lastly, Kotori almost fell into a murky pool of water.

Kaito sighed. Some help this girl was. "Kotori," he said to get the honors student's attention. Kotori stood still as Kaito approached her and hoisted her up into his arms.

Kotori was startled. At the same time, she was happy. It was the first time Kaito had ever called her by her name.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

"Senpai's a perv for Kotori!"

"Am not!"

"Senpai's a perv for Kotori!"

"Stop with your lies! Why would I ever think of my dear daughter in such a scandalous manner?"

"Senpai's a perv for Kotori!"

"Would you stop it already!?"

The twins laughed as they had successfully annoyed Yuma this much. There would be only one thing that would make this better…

"Yuma, I must agree with III and IV. The way I have heard you speak of Kotori is quite perverted as long as you regard yourself as her father figure," Astral said.

"Would you get back into the damn key!?" Yuma yelled.

"If you are done I have news," Ryoga said. The others fell silent while Ryoga spoke. "My family's private police force is being sent out to find Haruto. We're going to wait near the gates until they recover him. Now if you would all follow me." Ryoga looked back at the Hosts to see something was off. "Where are Kaito and Kotori?"

The three boys looked behind them to see that their companions had truly disappeared. "Where'd they go!?"

"That's what I'm asking you guys! Weren't you supposed to be paying attention to your friends?"

"Hey! They were taunting me! I had to retaliate! This is all Arishia's fault! She's the one who didn't have anything to do so she could have been watching Kotori and Kaito!" Yuma reasoned.

"They went off to look for Haruto. I assumed it was okay," Arishia said.

"It's still your fault! We silently gave you a simple job and you failed i-" Yuma shrieked as Arishia pulled out the fake gun from her jacket. It's fun to make people think you're toy weapon can actually hurt them.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

The Kamishiro police force entered the Tropical Aqua Garden with one task in mind: Recover Master Ryoga's friend at all costs and show anyone else no mercy.

The force quickly located a young boy and a tall man carrying the young boy. They surrounded the two.

"Target confirmed. The young boy has been found with a suspicious figure. We'll take the target into custody," one of the men said.

Kotori blinked. Young boy? Did everyone see that when they looked at her? Not to mention the fact that they considered Kaito a suspicious figure. What kind of suspicious figure would pull off abduction in swim trunks?

"Put the boy down or we will have to remove him forcefully," the police man spoke.

Kaito didn't listen to the orders. Didn't Ryoga tell these guys there were other people in the resort? The boy decided to forget that even being a possibility. That guy never gave the whole picture on anything.

One police man came up and grabbed Kotori by the arm. Kaito quickly reacted and sent the man to the ground. There was an order to fire warning shots, however that order was never met.

"Kaito! Tori-chan!" It was Haruto. "Out of the way!"

The young boy let out a jungle cry as he swung down on a vine. Haruto slammed into one of the police men, sending the man flying in another direction. Haruto flipped and landed on his feet. The remainder of the police turned around. Haruto let out a small laugh. He charged at one man and flipped him then proceeded to do the same with the rest of the men.

Haruto stood up tall after his ninja moment. "You guys better watch who you mess with next time! These are my friends!"

It looks the police force made a big no-no.

"Kotori!" Yuma called out as he and the rest of the gang ran toward them. "Are you alright?" Yuma gave Kotori a loving hug. "Don't worry me like that ever again," he said in a deep voice.

"I don't know what just went on here, but it's good that they're all alive," III said.

"Well this is disappointing. I was hoping for at least something to be broken. Haruto-senpai must have really held back," IV said sadly.

Kotori pinched Yuma to let her go. "Wait, he held back?"

"Yeah. After Haruto-senpai received all that power it gave some kind of ability to go pro-fighter when needed," IV explained.

"That's right he's also the National Champion in both karate and judo," Ryoga added.

Kotori looked over at the young boy in shock. This kid was a fighting champion? I guess powerful things do come in small packages.

"Kaitos-sepai's no slouch either," Yuma went on. "He's was the National Kendo Champion when he was just in middle school."

"So you really are the only Host without any kind of title," Arishia commented.

"Hey! Neither is Kotori!" Yuma retaliated.

"You forced her into this club, so she doesn't count."

"Why you!"

Yuma battle with Arishia instead of the twins for once. Kotori laughed. It was pretty easy to push the King's buttons. The honors student's attention was brought elsewhere as she heard the police force squabble to Haruto. The bowed on the ground.

"We humbly apologize Master Tenjo! We didn't know who we were up against!"

"Why are they apologizing like this? Shouldn't they be apologizing to you, Ryoga-senpai?" Kotori asked.

"Perhaps, but Haruto is one of the people who trained these men. And more importantly, it's a bigger predicament to upset the son of the owner of the city than the son of their boss," Ryoga explained.

"Wh-whaaa!" Kotori said. "I thought Dr. Faker was in charge of Heartland?"

"He is. He's also the father to both Kaito and Haruto. They just took on different names."

Kotori sighed in exasperation. "I need a real vacation."

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

A/N: I am sooooo sorry I didn't post this earlier. I had so much writer's block this month it wasn't even funny. I couldn't even write after watching the episode several times. I ended up writing this all within a few days (which hopefully doesn't show too much).

In other news, I think I eliminated the source of my writer's block. I used to like this guy and now I don't. All of you should thank my friends for that because their teasing had me a little fed up. It got me over the crush sooner than if I just let it disappear. It's weird because usually having a crush gives me more ideas instead of blocking them out.

With my life none of you care about put aside, I am psyched for December! More specifically, Christmas. In fact, I'm so hyper for Christmas that I will be posting a non-cannon Heartland Highschool Host Club Christmas special one-shot for you guys! I will hopefully post it on Christmas day or the day after.

Anyone know what character I used for Arishia'a bathing suit? Virtual cookies for anyone who gets it right!

Lastly, any of you who like my writing will be very happy in December, especially when I have Christmas break.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed!


	6. Chapter 6

Kotori looked at III and IV with confusion. "The beach?"

"The beach!" the twins repeated joyfully.

"Okay, but why?" Kotori asked.

"Didn't you say you need a vacation?" IV said. "I can't think of any place better than relaxing on the shore and playing in the nice ocean water."

"I really said I needed a vacation?"

"Yes Kotori," the twins said. They slid back to the rows of mannequins dressed in an array of bathing suits. "And here's the fun part!"

"We brought some swim suits for you to choose from!" III told Kotori. He gestured to a pink two-piece with a ruffled top. "Pretty cute, right?"

"What about this one?" Haruto offered. He pulled up a mannequin in a blue one-piece with a very small tutu.

The twins wagged their fingers no and made a disapproving sound with their tongues. "I don't think you get it."

"As you see, this uniform can completely cover the fact that Kotori here is Little Miss A Cup," IV said. "A one-piece like that would only cover up her lacking feminine physique. That's why III and I carefully selected that two-piece over there. The ruffles will hide the fact that she's so flat-chested!"

"Hey! Who are you calling flat-chested?" Kotori yelled.

"Well, you have to admit that your one of the least developed girls at our school," said III. "I would have honestly thought you of all people would be secure about your physique and not take offense so easily."

From behind, Yuma used a bat to smack the two boys to the other side of the room with. "Stop sexually harassing my little girl!"

The boys began to pick themselves off of the ground. "So we're not going to the beach?"

Yuma swung the bat over his shoulders. "Now I never said that."

"Sweet!" the twins said.

"Can Galaxy-chan come along too?" Haruto asked.

"For once, I don't have a problem with a plan of yours," Ryoga said.

"Sounds interesting," Arishia chimed.

Kaito hummed in agreement with the plan.

Kotori blinked twice and looked at Yuma in shock. "We're really gonna go to the beach?"

"I don't see why not," Yuma said. "Pack your bags; we're going to the beach!"

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

"And we couldn't go to the Caribbean because..?" the twins asked.

"Do you two really think Kotori has a passport?" Ryoga said as if it was obvious.

"I can hear you guys," the girl mumbled.

"You make it sound like Japan can't have beautiful scenery. Isn't this place wonderful? We don't need to be out of the country to have a good time," Haruto said.

"Haruto's right. But I do have a question about this beach. Isn't this your family's private resort Ryoga?" Arishia asked.

"Yes. Is there something wrong?" the boy answered.

"Yeah, you need to get all of those girls off of the sand. I don't think they're supposed to be here." Arishia gestured to the crowd of girl at the bottom of the stone stair case that connected the residencies to the beach.

Yuma chuckled. "Come on Arishia, you can share the space. We're just gonna do some hosting away from the Host Club today."

"What?" the Hosts said.

"Did I forget to mention that?" Yuma asked.

"Yes you idiot!" Kotori exclaimed. "You should be lucky I'm not wearing a bathing suit or else everything would have been ruined!"

"We should have guessed," the twins thought aloud.

The Host Club continued down the stairs. Once they made it on the beach, the girl crowed around them. They were all annoyingly excited about this day. Yuma sweetly smiled at the girl closest to him (that wasn't Kotori) and took her out to a large rock in the water they could sit on. At least half of the girls followed the two. Ryoga sighed and followed as well. They were going to need someone to make this system work.

The remainder of the ladies broke off with the twins or the Tenjos. Kotori manage to sneak off from the crowd and set up a beach blanket an umbrella for herself. She might as well get some time to enjoy the beach.

"Quick IV! Get it!" III shouted.

IV dived for the volleyball and barely managed to smack it over the net. "There!"

On the other side, Arishia eyed the ball and planned her attack. She jumped to reach the ball and slammed back to the twin's side. The volleyball collided with the ground and bounced back up, hitting III in the shoulder.

"III! Are you okay?" IV asked with concern.

"It's nothing IV. I'll admit that Arishia-senpai sure does hit hard." III looked over to see the ball rolling away. "I'll get it!"

"Wait up!" IV said chasing after his brother.

"Catch up! The ball is getting away!"

The girl watching the game fawned over the twins' playfulness. Even after being brutally smacked with a ball those two could still have so much fun.

Arishia rolled her eyes. "Fangirls."

From her spot, Kotori watched the twins run playfully down the beach. She chuckled at the two. It may be an act, but she had to admit it was pretty cute.

"Hey Kotori," a girl asked from behind.

Kotori looked back to see three girls ready for some hosting. She sighed mentally. _I thought this was supposed to be a day off._

"Aren't you going to put a bathing suit on like the other boys and come and swim with us?" another girl asked.

"No. I don't really feel like swimming today," Kotori answered.

"That's too bad," the first girl said. "We could all stay here and keep you company if you would like."

"But why would you do that?" Kotori asked. "You all have cute swim suits on. You should go swim to show them off."

Blush spread on the three girls' faces as they smiled. Kotori was such a sweet guy! How did he know exactly what girls wanted to hear?

The twins saw Kotori's little encounter from afar. IV picked up the volleyball he was chasing after. "I can't believe he actually managed to fool us."

"Yeah. Who knew the Boss would actually bring the ladies with us," III said.

"You honestly thought this was a vacation?" Ryoga asked from an umbrella-covered table nearby. "You were all brought here on an all-expense paid trip for a reason and that would be to keep all of our guests entertained."

"We know," IV sighed. "But with all of our guests here Kotori can't change into her swim suit. It'd be a nice change from those tacky cargo shorts and that green shirt."

"That's fine. I've got it all figure out," Yuma said. He rested in a lounge chair and closed his eyes contently. "Besides, my little girl shouldn't be in a swim suit around two perverts like you two."

The theater of Yuma's mind began to roll. III and IV pulled up a seat to the table Ryoga sat at. Sure, they couldn't see what Yuma fantasized, but the reaction to his fantasy would be great.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

_Yuma walked alongside Kotori in the shallow water of the ocean. The setting sun painted the sky canvas all hues of oranges, reds, and purples. It even made the waters glitter just like Kotori's eyes did. Everything was beautiful right down to the frilly, pink beach dress the honors student wore. (A great change from the male uniform)_

_Kotori looked into the sunset and pushed back a few strands of hair that was in her face. "Wow, the sunset is breath taking." The girl looked up to Yuma. "Oh senpai, I wish I could spend this moment here with you forever!"_

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

"It's gonna be just like that! I know it!" Yuma squealed as he wiggled with delight in his lounge chair. "It'll be the best day of my life!"

A group of girls looked at Yuma with worry. Was he having a seizure? Is it sun stroke? Did someone put a snake in his swimming trunks? What exactly did IV and a reluctant III do this time?

"Um, is everything okay with Yuma?" one girl asked.

"He's fine." the twins answered. "This kind of thing happens all the time."

Kotori rolled her eyes as she saw Yuma's odd movements. It was like he was one of those inflatable tubes in front of a car dealership. She decided it was best to get away from the stupidity before she caught it. Kotori walked down the beach just out of the tide's reach.

"Tori-chan!" Haruto called. "Would you like to help me find some shellfish?"

Kotori laughed. She hadn't searched for shells on the beach since she was a little kid. Then again, Haruto was a little kid. A genius who was somehow in highschool, but still a little kid. However, this beach didn't look like the kind of beach you'd find shellfish on.

That was what Kotori thought until she spotted the bucket of shellfish next to Haruto. Her eyes went. "What the hell? This can't be real!"

Kaito watched Haruto continue to gather shellfish. His focus was turned elsewhere as he heard noise from the other side of the large rock formation he stood by. Kaito scaled the rock to see what was going on. The last thing he expected to happen on the other side of the rock was exactly what was going on.

A police force, presumably Ryoga's since he was standing right there, was unloading shellfish by the bucket from a large truck. How'd they get that on the beach?

Ryoga spotted Kaito from the rocks. "Ah, Kaito-senpai. My family's private police force has decided to stop by. They've brought shellfish in hope that it would make up for the fact they attacked him the other day at the resort."

Kaito chuckled. People sure do strange things when your father can make sure you can never live in a certain city for the rest of their life.

"This is great!" Kotori said as she marveled the buckets and buckets of shellfish. "Look at all of the side dishes we can have tonight! It's gonna be a feast tonight."

Yuma chuckled as he watched his little girl. "Look at all of the fun they're having. It seems that all is right with the world."

"Senpai!" Kotori called out. "Dinner is gonna be awesome! It's a major haul!"

Everyone else on the beach looked over as they heard Kotori's excited voice. It was surprising how loud the honors student was as thoughts of delicious food flooded her mind.

Yuma picked up a crab from one of the buckets. "Say Kotori, don't you think this crab is, crab-tilating?"

Kotori chuckled. "Oh yeah."

"He's an idiot," Ryoga said as he overheard Yuma.

"Agreed. However, the sad part is that he got a laugh out of Kotori," Arishia added. "Would you call that flirting?"

"Why?" Ryoga asked.

Arishia shrugged. "Well, Yuma tried to appeal to something Kotori likes in a manner that would make her laugh. As planned, she laughed. Not to mention that he seems pretty happy that Kotori found that amusing."

"I suppose you're right, but I doubt he even realizes he's flirting. Actually, I highly doubt Yuma realizes he has a crush on Kotori," Ryoga said.

"How do you not realize if you have a crush on someone?" Arishia asked.

"When you're Tsukumo Yuma, anything that stupid is possible," Ryoga explained.

Arishia laughed. "Does something like not realizing there's a bug on the crab you picked up count as something Yuma would do?"

"Naturally. Let's see how this unfolds."

Back with the others, a long bug crawled into view from the crab Yuma was holding. Girls shrieked as they saw the bug on the crab and ran screaming in the other direction (along with the twins and Haruto, but he seemed to be running just for the hell of it).

"Centipede!" They screamed.

Yuma was paralyzed as the bug wigged on the crab. There was no way he'd touch something like that, but letting go of the crab meant losing some dinner. He couldn't do that to Kotori.

Before Yuma could think of what to do, Kotori removed the centipede from the crab and threw it on the rocks. She dusted off her hands as the twins slid up next to her.

"Now, most girls aren't the bug loving type and I'm positive you aren't," IV began.

"But don't you think you were a little rough on that guy?" III asked.

"It's a centipede guys. It takes a lot more than that to kill it, or really any bug," Kotori said.

The girls flocked toward Kotori once the coast was clear. They were all impressed by that manly act of courage of getting rid of the centipede. How would they have gone on without him? The girls commented how manly their dear Host was and thanked the honors student for the brave deed.

III and IV slid away from the crowd. "Kotori's not normal."

Arishia rolled her eyes. "It's just a stupid bug. All that proved was that she has more guts than any of you."

"Then how come you didn't get rid of the bug?" Yuma asked.

"I don't touch bugs; I squish them," Arishia explained. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go elsewhere. Hopefully a place free of this gender stereotyping."

Yuma and the twins watched in shock as Arishia walked away. What was wrong with these girls?

"Well, there has to be something they're afraid of," Yuma said.

Imminently, the twins came up with an idea. "Hey Boss, we just thought of a new game we can play that'll be a lot of fun! It's called the 'Who Can Find the Host Club Girls' Weakness Game'! So, do you think you're up to it?"

"That sounds like an awful game," Yuma said in a strained voice. Why would he ever deliberately try and frighten his dear Kotori?

The twins began to walk away. "I guess you're right."

"Besides, Kotori would only share a weakness with someone she's really close with," IV added.

Yuma's mind changed his opinion about the game. "What are the rules?"

"That's more like it!" the twins said. "The deadline is tomorrow. Whoever finds the girls' weakness wins."

"And I have the perfect prize." Yuma and the twins looked back to see the prize in Shark's hand. It was three picture of Kotori actually dressed as a girl. She even had her poofy hair-style from before the gum incident.

"We wanna play too!" Haruto cheered as he joined the group with Kaito.

"Then it looks like we're all playing," Shark said as he moved the picture around so Yuma, who was desperately trying to get a glance, couldn't see them.

"Wait! Where did you get those pictures? How could you give them up as a prize with those shady twins in this competition? They could win! I don't want those two having those pictures of my little girl, especially the one with her swimming uniform!" Yuma shouted.

"Where did you get those pictures Shark-chan?" Haruto asked.

Shark smirked. "I'll just say I have my sources. Let's leave it at that."

And so… let the game begin!

III and IV decided to try their luck with finding Kotori's and Arishia's weakness first. The twins invited the two and two of their guests to a cave. They quickly came up with a spooky story for the girls and brought them to the cave.

"They say that you can only access this cave during low tide," III said.

"Evidently, there have been many reports of people dying in here due to drowning," IV continued. "It is said by the locals that the souls of those who died down here still lurk in the shadows of this cave, seeking revenge on those who enter."

The two guests shivered with fright as the twins spun their tale. Arishia and Kotori, on the other hand, were unimpressed. The cave wasn't even that dark, let alone ominous. You could still here the waves of the beach crashing against the shore.

"Hey! Look over there!" III shouted.

A large, cloaked figure with glowing eyes appeared from behind some rocks. Its arms flailed in the air as it made a growling sound.

The two guests squealed the moment they saw the figure and the growling wasn't making it any quieter in the cave.

Suddenly, a bony hand reached out from behind Arishia and Kotori and grabbed them by the shoulder. Reflexively, Arishia grabbed the arm and flipped the owner of the arm over. IV came crashing down from overhead. He hit the ground hard enough that the sound could be heard in Canada.

"The hell was that for Arishia!?" IV yelled.

"You threatened to attack me so I was just defending myself," the Kaiba girl explained. "You've only brought this harm upon yourself."

"What's wrong with you two?" III asked with disappointment as he moved the puppet of the cloaked figure with his hand. "I thought everyone was afraid of ghosts."

"Well I don't believe in ghosts, so I can't be afraid of them," Kotori stated.

"Same goes for me," said Arishia. "Honestly, thinking I would believe in such a childish thing would be like thinking my dad will start believing in the Heart of the Cards. It's impossible."

The twins sighed in defeat. _Well, there's goes the fear of paranormal activity._

Haruto decided it was his turn to try and scare the girls. He called the two girls to the truck previously used to deliver the shellfish to the beach. Arishia and Kotori couldn't help but wonder how on Earth someone managed to get that thing on the sand. Regardless, the two joined Haruto in the truck.

"All right private police people! You can lower the doors!" Haruto announced.

The doors to the truck crashed down. Inside, the truck was pitch black and all sounds were shut out. Hopefully someone would be able to hear any activity from inside.

It was silent for a few seconds until…

"Ahh! I can't take this anymore!" Haruto shouted. "It's dark and scary and I don't think I can breathe! Help!"

"Haruto are you okay?" Kotori said in a panic.

"Everything's okay Haruto. Please calm down," Arishia attempted to sooth.

The claustrophobia attack strategy had failed poor Haruto. (Don't worry, there was a switch inside that managed to open the door. Haruto ran like the wind as soon as the doors opened.)

Kotori and Arishia decided they needed a break. After being stuck into two situations that involved a somewhat crowed dark space, a walk on the beach sounded very nice. However, the two didn't expect the tip of a harpoon-like object to appear in front of their faces.

"Um, Kaito, you're our _senpai_. Not a _sentai,_" Kotori said.

Kaito mentally sighed. There goes the fear of sharp objects attack plan.

The sun began to set on this crazy day. III and IV sat on a stone ledge disappointedly. It seemed like those girls aren't afraid of anything. The disappointment came more from the fact that no one could get a reaction from Kotori. She was supposed to be the easy target!

"Man, this is a lot harder than I thought," III complained.

IV looked over his shoulder. "Boss, what are you doing?"

Yuma laughed as he gathered something from the ground. He turned around with a bucket filled with snakes. "I've found these rat snakes. Kotori is so going to freak out when she sees these!"

"Anyone would freak over those," IV said unimpressed.

"Wait, I thought there weren't any rat snakes in this area?" III asked.

Yuma was puzzled. He was sure these were rat snakes, but what other kind of snake could they be? What snakes were even indigenous to this area?

III and IV gave each other wide-eyed looks. "Those are poisonous habu snakes!"

Yuma screamed and extended the bucket toward the twins. "Take them! Take them! Take them!"

The twins shot off away from Yuma. "No way!"

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Kotori scanned the shallow waters for anymore shellfish that could be lurking around. She spotted one and smiled as she placed it into her bucket.

_Dinner is going to be great tonight!_ She thought.

"Hey Kotori!" someone called from above.

Kotori looked up to see three girls on the large rock all of the shellfish were on earlier. "Be careful! You might slip!" she told the girls.

The girls enjoyed the pleasant ocean breeze from their perch on the rock. The breeze alone was magnificent and when you put together the salty aroma from the water and the lovely sunset everything seemed absolutely perfect. If only they could have some boys up there with them!

"Hey! You ladies look lonely!" a male voice said. "Would ya' like someone to hang out with?"

The girls turned around. This boy wasn't a member of the Host Club and neither was his friend. Both of these boys gave off a very sleazy feeling as they approached the girls.

One girl stepped forward and put her hands out low to stop her friends from moving. "No thank you. Please leave us alone."

One boy stepped forward and grabbed the first girl by the wrist. "Oh come on. We're not gonna hurt you or anything."

"You aren't allowed to be here. This is a private beach," one of the other girls said.

The boy's friend slip behind the two girls and wrapped his arms around them. "So that means we're alone, right?" he asked mischievously.

Out of nowhere, a cluster of shellfish hit the first boy in the back. The boy turned around to see who had the nerve to do such a thing. He saw that the culprit was some green haired kid with a bucket.

"Kotori!" the first girl said in joy.

"Hey! You guys should leave them alone right now!" Kotori asserted.

"You little runt!" the first boy yelled.

He charged at Kotori and grabbed her wrists. Kotori tried to break his hold, but she wasn't strong enough. The two struggled around the rock. Slowly, they made their way to the edge of the rock and Kotori was the one who would fall when shoved.

The first girl ran off during the struggle. She had to find someone fast. Luckily, the girl found III and IV running down the beach, away from Yuma and whatever was in his bucket.

"Yuma!" the girl called out. "We need help! Kotori's in trouble!"

Yuma snapped out of the current fear of the poisonous snakes and threw the bucket aside. The girl pointed him to the direction of the rock where the sleazy boys were and Yuma took off without a second thought.

The first thing Yuma saw as he came up the rock was Kotori on the brink of falling.

"Kotori!" he shouted.

Before the honors student saw the arrival of the King, she had been shoved off the rock and plummeted down into the ocean.

Yuma's heart skipped a beat as he saw Kotori fall. The only thing he could think of was to save Kotori and then his body did the rest. Yuma charge past the first boy and jumped into the ocean after Kotori.

"Where do you think you're going?" the first boy yelled. He almost jumped off of the rock after Yuma, but he was stopped by two voices.

"Well, where do you think _you're _going?"

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

It's amazing how seconds become minutes when you worry about someone so much. As the each small increment of time passed by, Yuma thought he'd be too late to save Kotori. But he got to her and pulled the girl out of the water.

The rest of the Host Club watched Yuma carry Kotori from dry land. Once Yuma had returned, Ryoga began to speak.

"We've dealt with those boys, took their ID cards, and asked them to leave. I've contacted a doctor. He should be arriving at any minute."

"Thanks Shark," Yuma said in a low voice.

"I'm fine guys, really," Kotori told them as Yuma put her down. It almost sounded like she was annoyed to be treated like this.

Yuma couldn't stand that she was talking to him in that tone. His voice became stricter. "What were you thinking?" Kotori looked up at Yuma. "You're not like Haruto-senpai. You don't have any special powers or some material arts skills." He grabbed Kotori's shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "Why? Why did you confront those guys? Two boys against one girl, what were you thinking?"

"It doesn't matter that I'm a girl and they were boys," Kotori defended. "Those girls were in trouble and they needed someone to help them. There wasn't any time to think and-"

"That's no excuse, you idiot!" Yuma interrupted. "You're a girl!"

"Look, I'm sorry senpai, okay? I don't understand why you're getting so mad at me right now," Kotori sternly said. "I don't think I did anything wrong!"

Yuma let go of Kotori and began to walk away. "You don't think you did anything wrong," he repeated. "Fine, but I'm not speaking to you until you are able to admit that you were wrong!"

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Everyone had returned to the Kamishiro's villa for the night. The popular activity was to shower and change before dinner. Naturally, the boys finished first. Most of them waited in the large dining room as the Tenjo brothers prepared dinner. Three of the other boys waited at the white-clothed dining table while Yuma was on the floor behind a pillar sulking.

"Someone made a stupid decision," IV sang.

"Come on, give the Boss a break," III said. "It's not his fault Kotori wants to be right. That's just human nature."

"That's why he's miserable because he won't tell Kotori that she's right," IV added. "Not that I'm siding with anyone. It's just really gloomy in here."

"It's not just inside that's gloomy. It should start raining pretty soon," Shark told the twins.

The two sighed. This day just kept getting worse. Hopefully dinner would be good (or at least not painfully awkward).

"We're done!" Haruto announce as he entered the room. He and Kaito had tray filled with the crabs they gathered today cooked to perfection.

Shark smirked at the food. It looked absolutely divine. "I'm sorry there weren't any maids around to help you guys, but I think you did a better job than they would've done. The maids down here are no good with seafood."

"It's no problem!" Haruto said. "I hope the taste as good as they look or else Nii-san and I won't be able to live up to those expectations!"

"Let's eat!" III and IV declare, each boy taking a crab to one of the set chairs.

"Shouldn't we wait for Ari-chan and Tori-chan?" Haruto asked.

"But that could be another half an hour!" the twins whined.

As the twins finished their words, the doors opened up and Arishia stepped into view. "Sorry for the wait. I'm afraid Kotori was being uncooperative with the wardrobe choices. Without further ado, famous duelists and Yuma, may I introduce Mizuki Kotori."

The green haired girl entered the room with a pleasantly surprising outfit. Kotori wore a long, frilly, pink dress with fluffy slippers. Yuma peaked at the girl's appearance and hit back behind his pillar as blush flooded his face. It was the same dress he imagined Kotori in earlier and she looked even prettier in it now.

"Nice dress," the twins said. "Where did you get it?"

"My dad must have packed it," Kotori answered. "He always wants me to wear all of this frilly stuff."

"Alright Kotori's dad!"

"Well, you would've seen that nice bathing suit you two picked out for her, but Kotori decided to be difficult. I let her wear that dress instead," Arishia said.

"Well there's always next time," III told her.

"Yeah. Now let's eat!" IV shouted.

When eight people sit down at a dining table meant for at least twenty people, everything feels awkward. However, what made this situation even more awkward was the silence that dragged out seconds to minutes. You know when Yuma's not talking something is diffidently up. Why did he and Kotori need to have this stupid fight?

This situation was the worst for Yuma and Kotori. Somehow, the two ended up sitting next to each other.

"Well, let's eat!" Haruto said in hope of breaking the tension.

Sadly, it didn't help at all. The majority of the club ate their crabs seemingly silent. The only real noise was made by Kotori. She made sure to loudly crack the shell on each leg of the crab to insure Yuma could hear it. Every time Kotori cracked yet another shell, Yuma cringed. The worst part was she ate every last bite of the crab. How could someone so small eat that much crab?

"Aren't these crabs…" Kotori paused to chew the food in her mouth. "…just crabtilating? Get it?"

Yuma eyed the pile of empty shells on Kotori's plate. She ate more than anyone else at the table. Yuma had actually lost his appetite as he saw Kotori devour that crab. How could she eat as much as a boy? Correction, how could she eat more than any of the boys at the table? Sure, there were always those girls who had dragon-sized appetites ("There was a whole cheesecake in that room? Are you sure you didn't misplace it Yuma?" Arishia said days ago), but this wasn't normal!

"Would you take it easy," Yuma complained.

"So you're talking to me again?" Kotori asked with a tone of victory. She threw the empty crab shell toward her pile, but missed. The shell smacked Yuma in the face.

He was choked up. All he could think was, _Why are you acting like this?_

Yuma rose from his seat. "That's it. I'm done with this." He began walking to the door. "Shark, would you please show me to my room?"

"Sure," Ryoga answered.

Yuma and Ryoga left the room and silence came once again. Kotori picked up yet another crab leg and began to crack it. However, she lost the strength to do so and truly thought about Yuma's words for the first time.

"Maybe he's right," Kotori thought aloud.

Yuma's words on the beach echoed in her head. _"Why? Why did you confront those guys?"_

"Looks like he got to her," III and IV said.

"You know, it wouldn't hurt for you to learn martial arts or something," IV told Kotori.

"But we can't force you if you don't want to," III added. "Besides, that's not the real problem here."

Kotori looked up at the twins. Their faces seemed a little sad as if they had almost lost something. They felt as if they had.

"We were all worried about you and how recklessly you acted," IV said.

"What do you mean?" Kotori asked. "I didn't cause any trouble for you guys."

III and IV sighed. They looked at each other with a face that said, "She still doesn't get it."

"That's not true Tori-chan. I think you should apologize to Yuma-chan. Okay?" Haruto spoke up with a smile. "You made all of us worry, especially Yuma-chan. I think he was the one worried most of all."

"You were all worried for me? But why?" Kotori asked, still failing to understand the situation.

Arishia sighed. "You're hopeless."

Kotori looked down suddenly feeling guilty about all of the trouble she put everyone through. "I'm really sorry guys. About everything I put you through."

"Apology accepted!" the twins said as if they were talking to a puppy. The two and Haruto took the apology as an excuse to hug Kotori. Arishia and Kaito simply stood behind the little hug-fest to let Kotori know they accepted the apology, but were not in the mood for hugging.

Kotori grumbled. III and IV looked at her questioningly. "Is something wrong?"

"I think I ate too many crabs," Kotori answered.

"Let's get her to a bathroom," Arishia said.

As soon as the words left Arishia's mouth, Kotori broke out of the hug and dashed into the nearest room. It seemed like a very long time. Normally, a long hallway with intricate window frames around windows that let light in was very beautiful. However, when you're about to be sick you fail to notice the detail around you.

Kotori turned off the sink and finished wiping her mouth after her unpleasant experience.

_Well that was a waste of a good meal,_ she thought. Kotori left the bathroom she was in to see whose room this was. She was in such a rush she didn't even notice what room she entered. As Kotori entered the main room she saw Ryoga sitting in a chair, shirtless, and drying his hair.

"I'm sorry for barging in here Ryoga-senpai," Kotori apologized.

"It's no problem," Ryoga answered.

"Um, senpai. I'm sorry for all of the trouble I cause for you guys earlier," Kotori further apologized.

Ryoga glance over to the girl. He expected a little more with that apology such as what she had done wrong.

_Apparently the message hasn't sunken in,_ Ryoga thought.

He got up from his chair and put the towel he was using to dry his hair around his shoulders. "Thanks, but I wasn't particularly worried. However, there was the issue of getting III and IV off of those two guys from earlier. They almost beat those two half-to-death." Ryoga sounded amused. "And then I had to send the girl a bouquet each. They had been looking forward for this trip for some time and we couldn't disappoint them."

"I'll pay you back for all of that trouble," Kotori said.

Ryoga began to walk over to Kotori. "Each bouquet cost me 50,000 yen each. That's another 150,000 yen on your debt."

"I know."

"I don't know how you plan on paying it all off." Ryoga smirked and killed the lights. "But perhaps we can pay some of it off now."

Kotori was confused, but things became clearer as Ryoga grabbed her by the wrist. He dragged her onto his bed and supported himself over her.

"Do you really think a person's sex doesn't matter? You're now completely defenseless against me," Ryoga said.

Kotori's eyes widened. She finally realized what Yuma was trying to tell her.

"You won't do it," Kotori said. "It wouldn't do you any good. There's nothing to gain out of this."

Ryoga smirked and freed Kotori. "Nothing to gain?" He sat on the edge of his bed. "You're an interesting person, Kotori."

Kotori sat on the bed and smiled. "You know Ryoga-senpai, I don't think I've ever realized what a nice person you are." Ryoga glanced at Kotori out of the corner of his eye. "You always help out Yuma. Even now. How many friends would try and scare someone like that even if it was for a good cause?"

The door opened up and Yuma walked in uninvited. "Hey Shark, do you have anything for sunburn? It really hur-"

Yuma paused as he saw Kotori and Ryoga on the boy's bed. The fact Ryoga wasn't wearing a shirt did not help with the following reaction from Yuma.

"What's going on here? And why are the lights out? Where is your shirt? So help me I'll-"

Ryoga pushed a bottle into Yuma's face. "Here, this'll help you idiot." He grabbed his shirt and left the room. It would be best for those two to work out their problems now instead of later.

Yuma and Kotori looked at each other for a few seconds in silence. The atmosphere was tense, just as it was back in the dining room.

"What were you two doing?" Yuma asked.

"Nothing honestly," Kotori answered.

"Then why were you in his bedroom with the lights off all alone? Don't you lie to me!" Yuma yelled. A shot of pain flickered on his face. Yuma turned around and began heading out of the room. "Never mind. You've been through a lot today. Just get some rest."

Kotori watched Yuma as he began to leave. He was still really mad at her. It was impressive how Yuma could really stick to a point, as he should since he was right. Kotori remember that she still hadn't apologized to Yuma yet. She rose from the bed and went to get Yuma's attention.

A grumble could be heard in the room. Kotori reached out for Yuma. "Senpai," she said nervously.

Lightning struck the ground and a booming thunder erupted immediately after. Kotori grabbed the end of Yuma's shirt as she heard the noise. Yuma turned around to make sure Kotori was okay.

Kotori seemed very startled. What suddenly put her in this state?

Another bolt of lightning hit the ground as thunder ripped through the air. Kotori screamed and hid her face in her hands.

Yuma raised an eyebrow. "Kotori, what's wrong?"

"N-nothing!" the girl defended. "Now, excuse me. I have some business to attend to!"

Kotori scurried to the back of the room and hid in a wardrobe. She curled up to stay safe from anything.

"What could you possibly be doing in there?" Yuma yelled. This was ridiculous, even with his insanities in mind.

"H-haven't you ever read heard of Narnia?" Kotori joked, but she sounded frightened.

Yuma began to piece everything together. "You're afraid of thunder and lightning, aren't you?" He walked over to the wardrobe and fiddled with the handles trying to get it open. "It seems like it would be scarier in there since it's all dark."

"I'm fine," Kotori answered. "I-I'm used to dealing with stuff like this on my own."

Right then, Yuma put everything together. This is why Kotori wasn't afraid of anything else today. She never had anyone to help her through stuff like this, so she just got over it. Well, she got through almost all of it.

It's the same reason Kotori didn't call for any help, even with everyone so close by. She's never been used to having someone there for her at all times.

"I get it." Yuma opened up the wardrobe. "You've been used to dealing with everything on your own, but it doesn't have to be like this anymore. Come on out now."

Kotori slowly looked up at Yuma. He had a hand out just for her. He was there to help her. Lightning and thunder struck again. Kotori's jumped out of the wardrobe and into Yuma's arms.

Yuma smiled. "It's all right Kotori. I'm here for you. We're all here for you. I promise, none of us will ever leave you all alone again."

Kotori held onto Yuma tighter. It's nice to have someone there for you.

A stroke of genius hit Yuma. "I know what we have do to help with this problem!"

"What?" Kotori asked. Her voice was muffled in Yuma chest.

Yuma left Kotori momentarily and dashed into the bathroom. He quickly returned with a towel and some earplugs.

"The towel will be a blindfold so you won't be able to see the lightning! And we'll use the earplugs I hid in Shark's bag to make sure you can't hear any thunder!" Yuma explained.

Kotori put in the earplugs and Yuma tied the blindfold around her eyes. The thunder and lightning crashed once again, but this time Kotori didn't jump.

Yuma smiled wide. His plan worked!

"You sick pervert," the twins said.

Yuma jumped and slowly looked at the entrance of the door. It seems that the remainder of the Host Club decided to come and checkup on him and Kotori.

"What kind of foreplay is this?" Arishia asked in disgust.

"You honestly never seemed like the bondage type, Yuma," Shark told him with a bit of a smirk.

"Let's go Haruto," Kaito said already carrying his little brother away from this scene.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

"Let me explain!" Yuma prayed as Kotori climbed into the limo.

"You'll have time to explain back at the Host Club. It's time to head out _now_, Pervert-chan," Arishia told Yuma.

"That's not what happened!" he yelled.

Kotori rolled down the window and glared at Yuma. "Well, now I know what bondage is."

She rolled the window back up and the rest of the Host Club climbed into the limo. Yuma had a sudden realization.

"Hey! Don't leave without your king! Wait for me!"

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

A/N: So, this is over a month late….

I'm really sorry about that. For whatever reason the holiday season was very busy for and before I had break I was also very busy. I didn't have a chance to post this earlier in the month because, once again, I was busy. I have been after school until almost 5 every day for musical rehearsals and then I practice my flute for an hour. Not to mention that for the last week I had to construct my giant Jenga tower for geometry, which took a few hours every night.

I should have more time to focus on my stories in the future. This week I have exams, but after my exams my classes switch. Next semester I only have one real class and all of my electives and Spanish. It shouldn't be too busy, so I hope I'll be able to write more often and update on time.

All of my excuses aside, I hope you all enjoyed!


	7. Chapter 7

Arishia and Kotori stared at the chained door quizzically. The girls could hear muffled shrieks from inside. They glanced at each other in hopes that the other knew what this was about, but they were both equally lost.

"So, who do you think is on the other side of the door?" Kotori asked.

"If I had to guess, I'd say that Ryoga has had enough of Yuma's antics once and for all," Arishia proposed. She looked behind her and called out to Haruto and Kaito, who were sitting on a couch. "Hey guys, who's locked up in the closet?"

The small boy turned around and stared at the closet for a moment before his eyes lit up like fireworks. He jumped over the back of the couch and began hopping with joy. "I can't believe it! She's really coming!"

Kotori raised an eyebrow. "Who's coming?"

Haruto ran up to the girls and smiled brightly with sparkling eyes. "It's Shark's sister! Rio-chan is coming to visit the Host Club!"

"Ryoga-senpai's sister is coming?" Kotori said in disbelief.

"That's cool. But that doesn't answer my question Haruto," Arishia told the boy. "However, I'm guessing whoever's in the closet is because Rio's coming, right?"

Haruto nodded. "Shark-chan doesn't like it when _someone_ is around his sister." He chuckled. "I think he's afraid Rio will fall for IV's fanservice."

Arishia smirked. "He's being paranoid. I don't think Rio is the kind of person who would fall for her hero so easily."

Kotori blinked. "You met Rio?"

"No, but Ryoga has told me a lot about her." Arishia looked back at the door. "Will IV be okay in there?"

"I'm not sure," Ryoga said as he entered the area. "But he'll be out of the way for quite some time."

Ryoga unchained and opened the door to reveal IV. He was tied down to a column, blindfolded, and gagged within the closet. "The only way he'll be coming out of the closet while Rio is here is if he's giving some fanservice to some guy."

"By seeing IV all tied up, I'd say Yuma would be the only one coming out of the closet," Arishia said.

"Kaito, is that what liked happened last time with Kotori?" Haruto asked innocently.

A quick flash of horror sneaked on Kaito's face. He quickly put his stoic appearance back on and answered. "You'll find out when you're older."

"Hey! Would you stop making me the villain of that last chapter?" Yuma complain. The Hosts (minus IV) physically came out of the closet to Yuma's pouting face and III. "Come on guys, we have to start setting up for the festival!"

"Festival? What festival?" Kotori asked.

"That's right! You don't know about the festival," III said. "Heartland Academy hosts an exposition for the arts, that being drama, music, dance, and artwork. It's an event held here annually." III paused, but remember IV's mouth so happened to be gagged. He continued his explanation. "The best part is that we get to miss out on all of our afternoon classes for the next two days!"

"Even the middle school classes are canceled, which gives those guys a chance to come over to the high school and check out all of the work," said Yuma.

"Well that's nice. I could use a break from hours of review," Arishia commented.

"Review!" Yuma shouted.

"Yeah, my dad homeschooled me until I came here. Did you really think I was uneducated?"

"Wh-what? Why would I think that? I mean sure, it may be a stereotype that rich kids who don't go to a school are most likely-"

"Stop Yuma," Ryoga interrupted. "You don't want to even try fighting this battle."

Yuma opened his mouth, but decided to close it. Shark was always right when it came to these matters. Yuma cleared his throat. "Well, during the festival the academy invites other schools to come. So we're going have more customers than usual. We need to prepare for their arrival."

"Yuma's right," Ryoga said and turned toward Arishia and Kotori. "Something we've done every year since the beginning of the Host Club was to advertise our location down at the middle school. The high school students from other schools tend to find out where we are through our usual customers.

"The middle school only knew about us because of III and IV. Those two would always make sure everyone knew where we are. However since IV is a little tied up, would you two mind helping III set up some posters down at the middle school?"

"But what about the rest of our classes?" Kotori asked.

"Don't worry about it. I've already gotten all three of you excused."

Kotori made a face. She should have known that there was no way out of this situation.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

"Am I the only one bothered about missing class?" Kotori grumbled. She handed another poster to Arishia, who passed it off to III.

"Well something is bothering me, but it has nothing to do with class," Arishia said. "I still can't figure out why Ryoga sent you and me down here. If it were III and IV they could split up and set up the posters faster. We don't know our way around the school, so we're forced to stick with III."

"I don't think Shark-senpai has another motive for his plans this time," III told Arishia. He stepped back to admire the poster. "Even it was IV and I setting things up, we would've stayed together the whole time and Shark knows that."

Arishia crossed her arms in thought.

_Perhaps Ryoga just wanted us to keep III company, but then why have both Kotori and I come with him?_ Arishia sighed. _Maybe III's right. But accepting that possibility doesn't feel right._

The three high school students moved throughout the school and continued to hang posters. They made conversation to fill the silence of the halls. After all, classes were still in session for the middle schoolers.

Just like the high school, the middle school was beautiful. It was obvious the building was a private school for only the elite. The middle school was all on one floor, unlike the high school. Another difference between the two buildings was the color scheme. The high school was like Valentine's Day, filled with shade of pinks, reds, and white. It seemed to hold more pride of Heartland City and its romantic atmosphere. The middle school, on the other hand, stuck with a light greenish-gray and white with various gold accents. It was a very elegant place.

III stepped back from the poster and smiled. "There's only one more left."

"Then we can get back to class, right?" Kotori asked hopefully.

"Well, IV and I would usually hang around and talk to the middle schoolers to get them excited for the festival."

Kotori sighed. "Of course you guys did."

"We should probably put this one in the music room," III said. "There's never a music class this time of day, so we won't be interrupting anything. After we're done with that we can go out to the main courtyard."

III's D-Gazer began to ring.

"You know that's not supposed to be on during school hours," Kotori told III. Then her D-Gazer went off.

"Looks like someone's a hypocrite," Arishia said mockingly. She took the last poster from Kotori's hands and began to walk away. "Take your calls. I'll find the courtyard when I'm done."

Arishia could hear Kotori and III answer their D-Gazers in the distance. In less than a minute she found the music room easily, considering it was right down the hallway. Arishia glanced through the windows of the room to make sure no one was there. As III had said, there wasn't a class in the room. However, someone was in the room.

Normally, the idea of entering a room with a potential fan was not something Arishia would do. There was always the chance the fan could be loud and obnoxious, which could draw more fans to the area. But there was something about the girl in the room that convinced Arishia that she wouldn't have to worry about that.

Arishia entered the music room. The girl turned around when she heard the door open.

Arishia smirked. "I believe class is in session."

The girl blinked her ruby eyes a few times. She couldn't figure out if Arishia was serious or if she was playing a game.

"Then again," Arishia continued. "your brother doesn't seem to believe in class either."

"You know my brother?" the girl asked.

Arishia nodded. "Ryoga's told me quite a bit about you. Rio, correct?"

The girl nodded. She watched as Arishia closed the door behind her and hung the poster in her hand up on the wall.

"Now, mind telling me what you're doing here?" Arishia said.

"I don't have class during this period," Rio answered.

"Why not?"

Rio rolled her eyes and replied with an attitude. "The doctors insist on checking up on me once a week. They still think I haven't recovered yet."

Arishia stepped back from the poster. "Doctors are doctors. They'll keep saying something is wrong until you don't have any more money."

Rio chuckled. "I guess you're right."

Arishia smirked. _I tend to be._

"Arishia-senpai," Rio said. "How has Ryoga been during school?"

The Kaiba girl looked toward Rio. "Are you worried?"

"Not necessarily. It's just that he doesn't tell me anything anymore. Even when I ask, he always seems to be avoiding what's really on his mind."Rio sighed. "I don't think he even cares about anything that happens in school anymore."

"It sounds like you are worried to me."Arishia walked over to the side of the room Rio stood and sat on the piano bench she pulled out from its respective instrument. "From what I know, he doesn't care for class. He's skipped out on certain classes and always says that it's something for the Host Club."

"It's not just that. When we were both in middle school, and even before that, Ryoga was a jerk."

"Well that hasn't changed," Arishia told Rio. "He puts some of us down on occasion. And he'll get that smirk on his face afterwards, especially when Yuma goes on one of his rants. A day doesn't go by when he doesn't remind Kotori of her debt in some way. Not to mention that just today he imprisoned IV in a closet and bound him to a column."

"Is Thomas okay?" Rio asked with concern.

"Possibly. You'll just have to ask him tomorrow during the festival." Arishia gave a wink to Rio. "Enough of that, what else has happened with Ryoga?"

Rio smiled. "You know, I think I was worrying for nothing. He's the same old Shark he always was."

Arishia smiled, truly happy she helped ease Rio's mind. She checked her D-Gazer for the time and rose from her seat. "Well I have to head out and advertise for the Host Club. Later."

"Good bye Arishia-senpai," Rio said as the Kaiba Girl left the room.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Arishia stared out the windows of the Host Club's back room with a placid expression. Various costumes and uniforms passed in and out of the school as the students set up for performances. She too would be performing during the festival.

The Kaiba girl sighed and her expression dimmed. _Of all the days, this is the one time he was forced to join his Dad on a business trip._

"Now what's wrong with you? I thought you'd be happy without having to wear that 'stupid uniform'."

Arishia slightly turned her head to give Ryoga, also out of uniform, a blank look out of the corner of her eye. "Nothing. It's just a shame that the one who has supplied us with our brilliant costumes can't make it today. He's on a business trip."

"You mean our real sponsor?"Ryoga teased.

"And who found said _sponsor_ and keeps in constant contact with him?"Arishia reminded.

Ryoga sat across the table from Arishia. "Honestly, you're more like a manager than a sponsor. You're the one who gets the costumes, selects the treats, and keeps an eye on everything overall."

"I guess it's in my blood," Arishia said flatly.

Ryoga sighed mentally. _Nothing._

"By the way, we need some more-"

"We're out of commoner's hot chocolate!"The twins cried as they barged into the back room.

"Just have Kotori get some more," Ryoga told them.

III and IV looked at each other. They didn't think to do that, even after stampeding over Kotori just to get to Shark.

As quickly as they barged into the room, the twins dashed out into the main area. However, they were stopped as they crashed into the girl they were looking for (again).

"Kotori!" the twins cheered.

The honors student wasn't so quick to recover. She groggily sat up and looked at the twins with a dazed expression. "Huh?"

"We seem to have a problem, you see," III said.

"We're kinda out of commoner's hot chocolate and we need you to get some more," IV finished.

Kotori managed to regain her focus and furrowed her eyebrows. "Hey, why do I have to get it? Can't you guys have someone else get some hot chocolate? I was going to look around at the festival."

"Don't worry about it," III told Kotori as he began to pick up the books she dropped.

"The festival isn't a mandatory event to attend, so it'll be fine," IV continued. He picked up Kotori and brushed off her uniform. "Now go get us some hot chocolate."

Kotori stumbled as IV pushed her forwards and grumbled as she marched out of the Host Club.

The second the honors student exited the club ground, two girls came up to her. "Hey Kotori!" they greeted brightly.

"What are you doing?" one girl asked.

"Just picking up a few last minute things for the club," Kotori answered with a tired voice. Those twins knew how to suck the energy right out of her. "III and IV are making me get hot chocolate instead of taking care of it themselves hours earlier when they found out we had no more. I wish they'd buy their own hot chocolate."

"Well, that may never happen, but at least they're having a good time!" the girl said.

"Yeah, and it's all thanks to you!" the other girl added.

Kotori look confused. "Me?"

"We've been in the twins' class ever since middle school and they've never been this friendly. They were always so withdrawn, as if they didn't want anyone to be too close," the first girl explained.

"I don't think they liked school very much, but then the Host Club came around and things started to change," the second girl continued. "Since then, they've came out of their shells a lot."

"They opened up even more since you joined the Host Club. That's why we want to let you know how grateful we are!"

"Yeah! Thanks to you they always live each day to the fullest!"

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Kotori couldn't help but reminisce the conversation she had about III and IV as she returned to Heartland Academy. Has she really done something that caused the twins to open up so much? Was she really the caus-

"Ahhh!" Kotori cried as she slipped on a something.

She was so deep in thought that she didn't even hear the monkey cry in the distance. It was this mysterious monkey who so happened to have a banana peel to throw in the middle of the sidewalk. How did that get in here?

Before Kotori could even worry about hitting the ground, she was caught by someone. Kotori looked up into her saviors grey eyes.

She sat Kotori gently on the ground and flipped back her blonde hair. "You should be more careful. It would've been a shame to see a beautiful young lady to hurt such a pretty face."

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Even without the instant hot chocolate, the Host Club was ready for business. At the moment there were no guests. However that was expected. Various performances were in progress during this time. Regardless, the hosts were in costume and ready to serve any guests who may come.

The Host Club was not only void of guests, but furniture as well. Besides the one couch the boys were positioned on, the rest of the room was fairly empty. When the guests began to come, a fairytale land would slowly make its way onto the Host Club grounds. It was an extra gift by Arishia's costume guy along with the dashing, knight-like ensembles he provided.

The clicking of heels could be heard approaching the Host Club. There was a chance it could be Arishia; she was wearing that black outfit with the silver vest which included those boots. However, it could just be the hallway's echo, but it sounded like there was another pair of heels.

The hosts rose from their seats on the couch and came to their planned positions. As the doors opened, the hosts smiled and greeted their guests. "Welcome to the Host Club!"

However, their smiles quickly morphed into shock. The girls were from another school, but…

"My my. This place hasn't changed at all-nya," Cathy stated.

"C-Cathy?" Yuma said in shock. His mouth remained wide open as he stared at the girl. Unlike other events, Yuma actually remembered that Cathy transferred schools. How could he? It right after Kotori joined the Host Club.

"Is this all the infamous Host Club has to offer us?" the second, blonde, pig-tailed girl asked.

"That's right Becky-kun." Cathy smirked. "It isn't much. However, they do usually have more furniture. What's the matter guys? Did the girls finally realize they were wasting their precious time here?"

"It's so the set would come in," the twins told the girl.

"You should know, you used to come here more than most of the other guests," IV reminded Cathy.

"Cathy, what are you doing here?" Yuma asked.

"Isn't it obvious? We're part of the festival!" the girl named Becky snapped. "Our performance isn't until later, so I asked Cat-kun to show me around. I wanted to have a good laugh before we set the audience to tears with the superior acting of our performance." She chuckled. "Not that any of you understand what true emotion is as you always capture a girl's heart and throw it away without a second glance."

"Now now, that's enough Becky-kun," Cathy told the younger girl. "It's not that they throw away the girl's heart, they just don't care. This is all a testosterone driven competition to see who can capture the most hearts. If they threw out those hearts they'd lose their ranking."

Yuma frowned. He muttered, "Cathy…"

"So, that's your view of this club, now is it darling Cat-kun," another girl spoke. She stood right outside of the Host Club with Kotori in her arm as grey eyes judging the boys. "By the looks of it, I'd say you're right."

"There you are Lexi-kun," Cathy said.

"Now where did you run off to?" Becky asked. The girl blinked as she noticed Kotori in the taller girl's arm. "Who's that?"

"Just a fair maiden who almost had a dear accident," Lexi answered. She drew Kotori closer to herself and began a speech.

"This poor young maiden has been forced to participate in this club's frivolous activities. She has even been forced into a male's clothing all for their gain." She pointed to the rest of the Host Club.

"That was her choice!" the twins called out, but they were ignored.

"Girls, I believe we have a maiden to save from these cruel males who think they can overpower her because of their gender. To think, they even had her appear to be one of them so others wouldn't target her!"

"Who would target Tori-chan?" Haruto asked. Like the twins, Lexi ignored the boy.

"So I'll say this once!" the girl declared. "Agree to hand over this girl to us, where she rightfully belongs, or prepare to face us!"

Yuma screamed in frustration. "I'm so confused! Who are you guys? What's going on here? And why are you trying to take my darling daughter away from me?"

The three girls giggled. Becky twirled and somehow quick-changed into a short, strapless, light blue dress and held a wand in her hand. She looked like a fairy. "First year, Rebecca Hawkins."

A mysterious wind blew a wall of flower petals across Cathy to act as a curtain. Once they passed, Cathy appeared to be some kind of ancient spirit. "Second year, Catherine Cathy."

Suddenly, the lights were killed. Not even the sun entered through the windows of the Host Club. A spotlight came out of nowhere and revealed Lexi, who was dressed in white pants and a long-tailed, purple coat. "Second year, Alexis Rhodes."

"Students of Miss Tèa Gardner's Academy for Girls! Highest ranking officers and best actors in the drama club," Rebecca stated.

"We believe in the power of women," Cathy continued. "And despise men who think their gender makes them elite."

"Barbaric. Thoughtless. Arrogant. That is what man is. They put up facades as an attempt to mask their true appearance out of shame and we have seen that fact and intend to put man where they belong!" Alexis announced. "To put them below women, as we are truly the top!"

The lights were killed once more, which allowed the three girls to quick-change and strike a pose once the mysterious spots lights hit them. The girls all wore brightly colored kimonos with plant-like décor fanning out behind them.

"We intend to begin our way to the top! We are the Friendship Club!"

The lighting reverted back to normal. The Host Club stared at the so-called Friendship Club blankly. The hosts had no idea what the hell just happened.

The silence was finally broken by the twins as they began to laugh hysterically.

"The Friendship Club?" III managed to say as he tried wiping the tears from his eyes.

"That's so stupid!" IV added and clutched his sides. They hurt from laughing so much from that idiotic club name.

"Just like the woman who saved the school," Arishia said as she entered the Host Club, arms crossed and an emotionless.

"How dare you insult our school like that!" Alexis shouted.

Arishia glared at the blonde girl. "Tèa Gardner, a woman who sponsors an all girls academy because of her dedication toward the arts. If that's all it was, then I wouldn't challenge it. But it's not only that sexist school that drives me mad, it's Gardner. She saves a school with her money from dancing and redesigns it to empower women to the extreme because one man broke her heart and because one woman 'stole' that heart from her."

"What do you mean by sexist?" Rebecca asked with an attitude.

"You can be sexist toward men too. And how about we look at your uniform. Sure, long sleeved pink jacket, white dress shirt underneath, and that little blue ribbon keeps the top safe, but we both know that little blue mini-skirt isn't going to cover much," Arishia said with a smirk. "Your stockings only reach your knees. You'd think an all-girls academy would do something about that."

The three girls from Gardner's Academy sent glares and growls toward Arishia. The Kaiba girl smirked and crossed her arms behind her. "Do you think those pitiful flames will have any effect on a dragon like me? Make a real move on your turn."

The hosts glance back and forth between Arishia and the Gardner Academy girls. The tension was suffocating.

"You seem to know a lot about Gardner's Academy, Arishia," Ryoga stated, brushing off the tension like crumbs on a table.

"I actually visited the school before. Dad had a business trip and left me with his dear sister. You know the one who married the King of Games." Arishia's smirk grew devious. "Uncle Yugi was good friends with Gardner. In fact, Gardner was in love with him. Obviously at that point she missed her chance. We were visiting the school so lovingly renamed in her honor. It was me, Uncle Yugi, Aunt Alice, and their son, Atem. I think a child is more than enough to prove the love between a couple."

"Enough!" Alexis yelled.

"Why? Don't you want to learn the truth about your 'great founder'?" Arishia pressed on. "Haven't you heard of her infamous break-down? You do have a day off every year on that day we visited her. This is why! A woman, who spoke so highly of friendship, could not accept that the man she loved fell in love with someone else and she ended up destroying that friendship."

"I said enough!"

"She slapped Atem. She told him, 'You are no Pharaoh.' I didn't understand what that meant at the time. Does it mean anything to you?"

Alexis marched in front of Arishia and glared her dead in the eye. "Listen. I don't care what vendetta you have against Miss Gardner, but I will not let you insult her like this. I believe you should apologize before you regret it."

Arishia wasn't fazed at all. She kept that smug look on her face with that amused smirk. "And what can you possibly do against me?"

"Don't let your foolish father's opinion of a woman influence your own. I don't say this from a woman's stand point against men, but to a child's decision concerning family relations! Make an opinion for yourself."

"I did," Arishia informed Alexis sternly. Her smug look shifted into a glare as the Gardner girl insulted her father. "I never let my dad's opinion concern my own. He never got along with Maximillion Pegasus outside of business, but Pegasus's son is my best friend.

"Furthermore, my cousin Atem and I don't get along. I should have been more than thrilled to see him physically hurt. I've enjoyed it every time I've done it to him. But I knew Gardner stepped over the line. So don't you dare insult my family or me without thinking over a few things. I may be a woman, but I am no idiot."

Alexis broke the glare-off and began to leave the Host Club. "Come girls. We're leaving."

Cathy and Rebecca followed like obedient dogs after their leader.

Arishia held her glare and watched the girls from Gardner's Academy for Girls slowly disappear in the distance.

"What the hell was that about?" Kotori asked with a voice shaking with rage.

"I heard idiots insulting the Host Club. I just gave them a piece of my mind," Arishia answered with a softer voice, but still diamond hard from the recent argument. She rested her one hand on her hip and lowered the other now that the battle was over.

"Well you didn't need to be so cruel about it!" Kotori shouted. "What did you have to gain out of any of that? What did you prove with that argument?"

"Kotori, calm down," Yuma said. "We don't need this to get out of hand."

"Why the hell not! Arishia seems to be fine with starting something!" A growl emitted from Kotori's. "You're just as hateful and heartless as your father!" With that, she stormed out of the room.

"Wait! Kotori!" Yuma called out. He began to chase after Kotori.

"Let her go," Arishia told him as he ran by her. Yuma turned around and looked toward Arishia, her back to him. "She needs to blow off some steam."

Yuma clenched his teeth and thought about listening for a moment. Instead, he followed his heart and chased after Kotori.

"Ari-chan, are you okay?" Haruto asked.

"I'm fine Haruto," Arishia answered with a very small smile.

Kaito frowned. That was a fake smile on her face. Well practice, but fake nonetheless. He stepped toward Arishia and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you sure about that?"

Arishia washed the anger from her face and looked up at Kaito with blank innocence. "Possibly."

Haruto stepped up to Arishia next and grabbed her hand. She looked down to the smiling boy as he held up his stuffed dragon for her to hold. There was a piece of caramel in its hand. "Eat it. Caramel has magical powers that make you feel better."

Arishia couldn't help but smile at Haruto. She took the piece of caramel from the dragon's hand, unwrapped it, and ate it.

"You can hold Galaxy-chan too!" Haruto told her.

Arishia giggled and decided to pick up the boy along with the dragon. Haruto giggled uncontrollably for a few moments as Arishia swung him around. He wrapped his arms around her neck for balance when she stopped. He gave Arishia a wide smile and looked at her with sparkling eyes. "See, it's magical."

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

"Wait! Alexis! Wait up!" Kotori called out.

Alexis and the other girls continued to quickly walk away, not wanting anything to do with the Host Club or any of its members.

Kotori began sprinting to catch up with the girls. She managed to pull in front of the girls. They stopped and let Kotori catch her breath.

"What do you want?" Alexis asked, keeping her voice harsh.

Kotori panted for a few more seconds and slowly regained her posture as she spoke. "Look, I don't approve of anything Arishia said to you girls. She was way out of line. I… I wanted to apologize for her behavior." Kotori bowed to show the sincerity of her words.

Alexis chuckled. "Stand up straight, maiden. I believed your words without the etiquette. You seem to have more sense than anyone else in that harem-like club."

"I think I should apologize as well," Cathy spoke up. "Kotori-san, I'm deeply sorry about my behavior. I was overrun with jealousy about a stupid boy. I hope you can forgive me."

Kotori smiled. "Of course. I would've been pretty upset too if someone I cared about started spending a lot of time with someone else."

"Thank you, but I have to ask. Why are you in the Host Club in the first place?"

Kotori chuckled and felt a sweat drop animate on the side of her head. "Well, I kinda managed to break a vase worth eight million yen and I don't exactly have the money to pay that off."

"You know, we could help you pay off that debt," Rebecca said.

"Oh no, I couldn't owe anyone else any more money."

"No, we're not going to take anything out of our bank accounts, but a school might," Alexis told Kotori. "I'm sure Gardner's Academy would be more than willing to take you in and pay off your debt."

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Yuma listened in utter horror as he heard the offer being made. The situation was ideal for Kotori. She didn't like any of the Host Club's activities, having a school pay off that debt would be the perfect way to leave the Host Club. But would Kotori really leave the hosts? Club of not, they were all still friends, right?

"That's an interesting offer. I'll have to think about it."

Yuma's eyes nearly shot out of his head as he heard Kotori's words. He nearly gave away his position from where he was eavesdropping on the girls. Yuma was ready to run to Kotori and force her to change her mind, but a sharp pound from his heart stopped him.

_If it makes my little girl happy, then I shouldn't stop her, right?_ Yuma rubbed his eye to stop the oncoming tear. _If it's what she deems best, then I won't stop her._

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Now that she was finally away from the Host Club, Kotori decided to actually have some fun and enjoy the festival. Maybe she would watch Gardner Academy's performance when it came on. Kotori looked to the sky and smiled. Finally, she had some time away from the Host Club for once!

"Ah!" Kotori shrieked as she ran into someone. Stupid sky, always distracting people from what's right in front of them.

"You alright there?" the boy Kotori ran into asked.

The honors student sat up and gave an apologetic look toward the boy, who was already picking himself off of the ground. Kotori shifted her gaze upwards and stared into the boy's kind, onyx eyes. He extended a hand toward her.

"I'm really sorry about that. I was looking down at my D-Gazer to contact a friend who's performing here and I didn't see who was in front of me," the boy explained. "I feel so bad for making a pretty girl like you fall."

Kotori was shocked. How many people could see through her disguise so easily? She took the boy's hand and stood up.

"It's not your fault! I wasn't looking either!" Kotori told him.

"A daydreamer perhaps?" the boy asked. "Or maybe an author or artist staring into the sky for inspiration?"

Kotori giggled. "None of the above." She inspected the boy and was impressed with what she saw. It wasn't that Kotori was checking him out, but his outfit was very formal. The boy wore simple red suit (the color was toned down compared to the male first-year uniforms at Heartland) with a white dress shirt and black shoes and a tie. His hair was a lovely dusty purple that was a bit disheveled from the fall.

Almost as if he knew Kotori saw the imperfections in his hair, the boy put it back in place perfectly without a mirror. He then extended a hand to greet this time. "My name's Max. What's yours sweetheart?"

Kotori blushed and shook Max's hand. She wasn't used to such light compliments. "I'm Kotori. If you wouldn't mind, could you please stop with the sweetheart?"

Max gave a small frown. "You probably have a boyfriend already, don't you? I wouldn't be surprised. I'm pretty good with starting to flirt with those girls."

"No no! It's not like that!" Kotori said, flustered by the boy's guess. "It's just that everyone around here thinks I'm a boy and I have to keep it that way."

To the honors student's surprise, Max didn't look confused. His face was blank for a brief moment before smiling. "Well that's a relief! It's always so awkward when someone's already taken!" He chuckled and put his hand on the back on his neck. "Though it's not like I can really try anything else. I don't want people thinking I swing that way."

Max let out a breath and gave a joyful look to Kotori. "Hey, you wouldn't mind showing me around? I've never been here before."

"No problem! Would you me to help you find your friend?" Kotori offered.

"Well, now that I think of it, I'd rather surprise her. She's not exactly expecting my arrival."

"Okay, where would you like me to show you then?"

"Nowhere in particular. Well… how about somewhere without many people? There's a really good chance someone would recognize me."

Kotori raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

Max chuckled nervously. "Hey we should start moving! Before someone comes, you know?"

"Um, sure?" Kotori was confused, but she began to move with Max at her side. "But why would someone recognize you?"

"I'd rather not say," Max told her. "It's nice when people don't know who I am."

Kotori smiled. "In that case, we're absolute strangers!"

Max laughed. "Even if I told who I was, we'd still be strangers."

"Then tell me something else so we aren't strangers," Kotori said. "I told you about me. Give me a fact about yourself."

Max's eyes sparkled. He thought of many random facts he'd like to tell Kotori. It wasn't everyday that someone would actually try to get to know him. He thought carefully. He could tell Kotori was a pretty smart girl and he didn't want to give away anything about his fame.

"I absolutely love art. All art. That's why I'm going to love this festival. Everything from painting to music is wonderful," he said.

"Are you an artist?" Kotori asked.

"Sweetheart, you don't understand the words coming out of your mouth. I am an all-round artist! Painting, music, ballet, I love it all!"

"Do you have a favorite?"

Max took a moment to think. "Well, I think I could narrow it down to drawing, painting, and probably drums. I'm most likely forgetting a few things, but that's all I got. So tell me about yourself? Why are you here at Heartland Academy?"

"It's a great school with excellent classes and everyone here puts off a very nice vibe," Kotori answered simply.

"Honestly, I'm surprised you weren't snatched up by Tèa Gardner's Academy for Girls." Kotori noticed the manner Max said the school's name.

"Do you also have something against that academy?"

It was an odd seeing Max wear a subtle frown. Even though Kotori had only him for a few minutes, it didn't fit the boy.

"Not the academy itself, but more of their drama club, or Friendship Club as they say," Max clarified. "You see, the school itself was originally made to empower women. Don't get me wrong, I think everyone should have equal rights regardless of gender, but the Friendship Club takes it to a whole new level.

"Recently, the club took some of the best upcoming dueling stars away from that path. It's the same story every time."

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

"The Friendship Club is notorious for taking women away from dueling," Arishia said. "Rebecca was the former Duel Champion of America. I know Cathy was the best female duelist when she was here and Alexis was one of the top duelists at my dad's duel academy. But they all gave up dueling completely for stupid reasons.

"All three of them lost someone they loved to another person and the academy gave them the love they needed. Eventually, they just became students. Rebecca had a massive crush on my Uncle Yugi when she was a little kid. Obviously, Yugi was way older. Not to mention that he was married and had a kid. When Uncle Yugi finally explained that all to her, she was devastated.

"As for Alexis, she kind of brought her heartbreak on herself. She was very popular at Duel Academy Island. A lot of guys had crushes on her, but they were all too terrified to say anything. Except for one boy. Manjoume Jun. He was always after Alexis's heart, but she'd shoot him down every time. Eventually, he stopped. He fell in love with a childhood friend. As Jun fell in love with someone else, Alexis was falling in love with him. According to Jaden, the day she was finally going to say something, he left and started his dueling career with his girlfriend.

"In both of these cases and Cathy's, the girls needed a break from everything. Somehow, the met students from Gardner's Academy who gave them the love they craved. They felt like they belonged at the school and transferred there. Gardner's Academy has a strict ban on dueling, so they had no choice but to give it up. Apparently, something that was such a major part of their lives meant nothing in such a short period of time."

"It's just a club of broken hearts," III muttered.

"That's another name people have called the Friendship Club," Arishia stated. "The Broken Hearts Club."

"I can't believe they got to Cathy," IV though aloud.

"Yeah, she was always a really confident about herself," Haruto said. "She was really shy at first, but then she came out of her shell when she started coming to the Host Club. After that, she was very kind."

"But she became selfish," Kaito explained. "She thought she was the only one who could have Yuma's attention."

The doors to the Host Club opened with a squeak and closed with a soft click. The members of the Host Club turned around to see Yuma in front of the doors, his head to the ground and an air of misery surrounding him.

"Whoa, what happened to you?" IV asked.

Yuma was silent for a moment. "Kotori…" he muttered.

"What happened to Tori-chan?" Haruto asked with worry.

"She… she's considering an offer to join Miss Tèa Gardner's Academy for Girls."

The members of the Host Club were shocked.

"Why would she do that?" III questioned.

"To get out of here," Ryoga answered.

IV clenched his teeth in a small fit of rage. "And why would she want to do that? It's not like we're the one who made her come to Heartland Academy! If she wanted to go to Gardner's at first, then why didn't she? Kotori could've gone to any school she wanted, but she chose this one!"

"It's not to get out of Heartland Academy; it's of get out of the Host Club," Arishia explained.

"Let's be honest, Kotori has never enjoyed our activities. She always complains about what we do or the girls who swoon over us," Ryoga said. "As you said IV, Kotori could get into any school she wanted with her grades. She'd pass Gardner's entrance exams without a problem and they'd pay any amount of money to bring her to their school. That includes her debt with the Host Club."

"What are we going to do?" Haruto wonder and looked for answers on everyone's faces.

"We don't do anything," Yuma told the young boy. "It's Kotori's choice to leave or stay, not ours. If she really wants to be at Gardner's Academy, let her go."

Everyone was shocked with Yuma's words. Was he really going to let Kotori go without a fight?

Shark didn't believe that for a second. He marched over to Yuma and grabbed the collar of his shirt. "What the hell is wrong with you? You're just gonna let her go that easily? Where is that passion you've held for Kotori all this time? I don't care what you think is best for her. You'll never forgive yourself for letting her go this easily. Why don't you fight for what you care for?"

Yuma didn't answer. He just looked to the ceiling with tears lining his eyes. Shark threw Yuma to the ground in disgust. This wasn't like that thoughtless idiot.

"Shark," Yuma whispered. "You're right. I'm being a fool."

Shark didn't say anything. He just looked down at Yuma and waited for more.

The boy shot up from the ground with a renewed smile on his face. "Alright! Kotori will have to come back here to pick up her stuff eventually, so we have until then to come up with a plan that will convince her to stay here at Heartland Academy! Are you guys ready?"

"Yeah!" the three enthusiastic members of the Host Club shouted. (Arishia, Ryoga and Kaito weren't ones who cared to show their emotions.)

"What's the plan boss?" the twins asked.

Yuma smiled evilly. "Oh, I got something in mind. Arishia, would you mind fetching the other costumes your friend included with the knight ensembles?"

A smirk spread on Arishia face. _This is going to be too much fun._

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

"Hey, I have to head back to my friends," Kotori told Max.

"Where are you heading off to?" Max asked.

"Just down to the Host Club."

"Can I come with you? My friend has told me a lot of good things about the Host Club. I'd like to come see it myself."

Kotori smiled. "Sure! Why not?"

Max and Kotori had continued their various conversation topics as they traveled to the Host Club. Kotori had learned a few things about Max, like that he designed clothes and would play percussion when his friend wanted a certain timbre to the music she played. As such, Max had discovered things about Kotori as well. He found out why she was a boy and a bunch of activities the Host Club would do for their guests.

These continuing conversations lead the two almost all the way to the Host Club. Kotori could see the door as she and Max came to the top of the stairs.

"It's right down there," Kotori said and pointed down the hallway.

As the two walked toward the club, voices could be heard coming from around the corner.

"Um, Kotori," Max spoke, a bit nervous. "I'll come in a few minutes." The boy began to walk away.

"Wait! Why?" Kotori called out.

"Those girls will recognize me!" he loudly whispered and scurried to the stairs. "Don't worry! I'll find my way back!"

Before Kotori could say another word, Max was out of sight. The honors student sighed. That boy was so jumpy at times. He would duck behind something every time he heard someone come their way. If he was such a superstar then how come she didn't know who he was?

"Ah Kotori-chan!" a voice called out. It was Alexis.

Kotori jogged up the hall and stopped in front of the Host Club doors with the girls from the Friendship Club.

"He guys, what are you doing here?" the honors student asked.

"Just informing this little club about our offer," Alexis answered. "Shall we enter?"

Kotori nodded and grabbed the handle of the Host Club doors. The familiar fragrance of roses filled the air, but there was something else. Was that perfume? The hosts were positioned at their usual spots, but there was a tent made of a thin, red fabric translucent enough to see the outlines of each host covered them.

It looked like Yuma rose from his seat on the couch and began walking toward the curtain. He opened it with two white gloved hands.

"Wh-what the hell is this?" Alexis gasped in horror.

Yuma was dressed as a woman. (A princess in fact)

"Welcome dear daughter and Gardner girls!" he greeted in a high-pitched voice.

The curtain retracted and revealed the rest of the Host Club, all of them cross-dressing. (Except for Ryoga, who was nowhere to be found.) The hosts all wore princess like dresses with over-the-top wigs and completed with gaudy jewelry and poorly done makeup. (Except for Kaito. Everything past the wig was beyond his tolerance.) Since she was girl, Arishia was the boys' knight in shining armor, complete with a wig and a sword from the original outfits. The dresses were actually for the guest so they would be able to be a Host Club princess for a day.

"What is the meaning of this? Are you trying to insult all of woman kind?" Alexis accused.

"Insult? No, you got it all wrong!" Yuma insisted. "This is our plan to make everyone smile! And what gets people smiling faster than cross-dressing?

"You girls may not know this since you have lived your lives sheltered from the world of commoners, but they brave many hardships. Silly events like this help them smile and forget of all their worries. You could call this our Free Smiles Event," Yuma said with a wink. "By expressing our feminine sides, outfits and all, we not only please our guest, but Kotori as well. Now she can have both a family of brothers and sisters!"

The twins floated over to Kotori in matching green dresses and questioned the girls in their own soprano voice. "Which one of us is prettier?"

"That's a trick question," IV said with a wink and III gave a girlish giggled.

"Tori-chan!" Haruto called out in his frilly pink ball gown. "You can call me sister now, okay?"

Arishia and Kaito gave a nod of acknowledgement. Arishia wanted to avoid a possible quarrel considering she and Kotori weren't on the best of terms earlier. Kaito, on the other hand, decided he wanted to keep the rest of his pride. (He really wished he found out where Ryoga was hiding and join him.)

"I demand to know the meaning of this!" Alexis shouted. "How dare you insult-"

Kotori burst into a fit of laughter. "Oh my god! Wh-what is all of this? Hahaha! I don't even understand why! I knew you guys were crazy –haha!- but I never thought you'd do something like this!"

The honors was rolling on the floor, clenching her stomach in pain and on the verge of tears from all of the laughter. The twins and Haruto snuck up to Kotori and smiled.

"Are we really crazy?" they asked with their girl voices. "Call me big sister!" they began chanting.

Once their foolish demands reached an end, Kotori began to recover.

"Guys, what was this all for?" she questioned.

"Well, we didn't want you to leave the Host Club," IV answered, his voice back to normal.

"What?" Kotori was confused for a moment.

"We knew you were really upset earlier today and I found out that the Friendship Club made you an offer to attend their school," Yuma explained. "None of us want you to leave. We're a family. We may have fights ever now and again, but we still care for each other a whole lot."

Kotori smiled at Yuma and turned to face Alexis.

"Alexis, though I appreciate your offer, I'm going to stay here at Heartland Academy. From the start I was never going to leave. I chose this school with a goal in mind and plan to stick with it until the very end," Kotori told the Gardner girl.

"Oh Kotori!" Yuma cried with joy. His face quickly snapped into confusion. "Wait! How come you said that you would think about it when they made that offer?"

"I saw you following me and I don't appreciate being stalked!"

"I wasn't stalking you!"

Kotori and Yuma broke out into an innocent quarrel. The Gardner girls watched this and knew what to do.

"Lexi," Rebecca spoke.

"I know," Alexis responded. "Maiden, we won't give up on you just yet," she informed Kotori. "One day we'll liberate from this place and have the Host Club abolished! Until then."

The Gardner girls left the Host Club in twirls, having the door mysteriously close behind them. The hosts quickly changed back into their casual wear, not wanting to cross-dress anymore. As they came back, Ryoga had rejoined the group and Yuma began to complain about his absence in their last plan.

Kotori smiled. It looked like everything would be turning back to normal soon enough. Now if only she could find where Max ran off to.

As if on cue, the doors to the Host Club opened and in came a face everyone knew.

"Max, I'm so glad you could make it!" Kotori said.

"You jerk!" Arishia marched up to Max, giving him a glare and positioned her hand on her hips. "You told me you were on a business trip!"

Max melted under Arishia's glare and laughed nervously. "Hey! How was I supposed to know that Dad's business trip was in Heartland?"

Kotori raised an eyebrow. "You two know each other?"

Yuma was bouncing in joy. "Of course they do! He's Pegasus Max!"

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

A/N: So sorry this was super late! But this is over 1,000 words more than I usually write and the Arts Festival will have a part two in the following chapter. Every time I said to myself, "This will wrap up in another 200 words" another 500 words appeared. I sometimes underestimate how much I can write.

I really hope you guys liked this! Personally, I loved this chapter both writing and editing it. This was just so much fun! I'll make sure to clarify things in Day 2 of the festival!

I hope you all enjoyed!


	8. Chapter 8

"Don't growl Yuma. This was your idea after all."

Yuma growled again, this time at Shark. Sure, it may have been his idea to have Max Pegasus act as a host for the day, but he never thought he'd be this popular! At the very least, Yuma expected his usual customers to stay with their King, but no. They decided to betray their King for some other guy who just waltzed in from off the streets.

"Would you relax? It's only one day," Shark told Yuma. "You know, since there aren't many guests you could spend some time with Kotori. She could still be upset from her argument with Arishia from earlier. It would be a shame your daughter had to deal with that all on her own."

"I can't. She went out into the festival with those stupid twins," Yuma grumbled. "They're probably poisoning her mind with their nonsense."

"I doubt that. I think IV said something about teaching Kotori how to duel as they were leaving."

"What? That's unacceptable! I'm the only one who can teach Kotori how to duel! It's a father's responsibility that can't be taken away!"

Shark sighed. "You're an idiot."

"Hey! I take offense to that!" Yuma said. "By the way, do you have any idea why Kotori got so worked up earlier? It seemed really odd to me."

"How would I know? Maybe you should ask her yourself."

"You know, I didn't think about doing that."

Before Shark could hit Yuma for his stupidity, Max bounded up to the two boys. "Looks like the King could use some attention!" he said with a smile.

"King? Really?" Yuma asked joyfully as Max threw him into the crowd of girls. It's been a while since anyone has called him "King".

Yuma looked like he was caught up in one of his daydreams as all of the girls fawned over him as usual. His lovely ladies still cared about him!

Max chuckled. "Well he seems pretty happy now. You know, it's pretty nice having a bunch of girls fuss over you like that."

"Personally, I can't stand that. I'd rather be far away from any fangirls," Shark told Max.

The Pegasus boy shrugged. "I guess it's a personal preference." He looked back over to Yuma and his fans. "Yuma sure seems to enjoy all of the attention. Why hasn't he tried getting into some dueling competitions? He'd get a lot more fans that way."

"It's not exactly like that. Yuma likes to put a smile on someone's face more than the attention itself," Shark explained. "But I guess in his case, it's almost the same thing."

"That's my point! The plus side to actually competing for him would be that Arishia would stop making fun of him for not having a professional record." Max blinked and curiosity replaced the smile on his face. "That reminds me, did something happen earlier today? Arishia seemed kind of wound up."

Shark explained the appearance of the Friendship Club and Arishia's fight with them and how it was immediately followed by Kotori harsh words.

Max frowned. "I see. You know, I don't think she really cared that much about the Friendship Club. If anything, I think she's more wound up from her fight with Kotori."

Shark was curious. "Why would you say that?"

"Arishia tells me about the Host Club every time you guys need something new. I always ask her about Kotori 'cause I'm curious why that girl is doing this to repay you guys. Even with all the stories about the debt, it sound like she and Arishia are friends.

"I honestly think that she's really upset by what Kotori said. There's been lots of people who've compared Arishia to her father in that way, but she never liked any of those people. Which is why, even after they've apologized, Arishia would never see them as a friend," Max explained. "She's always held a little respect for Kotori ever since she stood up to her, regardless to the fact that she didn't know who Arishia was. But it looks like that's been thrown out of the door."

_Well that makes sense_, Shark thought. "I bet it has been. I'm guessing she's more hurt by that than she's letting on. That must be why Kaito and Haruto decided to show her around the festival so they could try and cheer her up."

Max's smile returned. "You know, I'm really glad Arishia decided to come here. She has more friends than she ever thought she'd have in her life."

"Hey Max!" Yuma shouted. "I challenge you to a duel!"

A look of horror jumped on Max's face as he waved his hand frantically. "No no!" His voice was panicked. "I'd rather not embarrass myself! I'm really no good at dueling!"

That didn't matter to Yuma, however, as he marched up to Max to drag him to the center of the room to duel for all of the guests. "Come on! You have to be bluffing! You're the son of the guys who made to game!"

Before Yuma could get to him, Max ran to the open windows. (It was a nice day and Yuma, unlike other hosts, thought fresh air was a good thing.)

"That doesn't matter. I'm adopted! Whatever Dad's skills are will always be just his since we aren't biologically related! And please don't use artistic talent against that argument. It's surely coincidental!" Max insisted.

Yuma slid up to the Pegasus boy and slung his arm around him. "Come on! One duel won't hurt!"

Due to the force Yuma hit Max with, the Pegasus boy's deck case flew open and a few cards slipped out. One of those cards managed to float out of the window and landed somewhere in the festival.

Max broke out of Yuma's grasp and picked up his cards that fell on the ground. "Oh look at that! I surely can't duel you without a complete deck. I'll have to leave and find the card!"

Max was out of the room before Yuma could object. The King sighed. "Well, it looks like it's just you and me Shark."

Shark smirked. "Tch. Typical." He took out his D-Gazer. "You're on."

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

"Doki Doki Waku Waku!"

"I don't think there's a solo piano arrangement for that," Arishia told Haruto.

"Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata?" Kaito suggested.

"It's kinda long and the third movement is over done."

"Bad Apple!" Haruto cheered.

"It's nice, but it doesn't sound that impressive."

"Arabesque 1 by Debussy?" Kaito offered.

"It's too slow for a teenage audience. Not all of them appreciate that kind of music."

Arishia sighed as she shot down another one of the Tenjos' suggestions. She was to perform a piano solo tomorrow for the talent competition which closed the Arts Festival. Although she agreed to perform, Arishia didn't know what she was going to do for her act. (Which flustered Takashi Todoroki, class rep of the first year's Class A, who wanted to have everything perfectly planned out.)

Originally, Arishia planned to pull out some random song from her sheet music collection and just play that. She wasn't too intent on winning the competition (though she believed she'd win no matter what she would play). However, she found out those Friendship Club idiots would also be competing and she wanted nothing more than to utterly crush them and over shadow their act.

"Arishia!"

The three looked over as Max ran up to them.

"Hey Max, what's up?" Arishia asked.

"I lost my card," Max pouted like a puppy.

Arishia fought the urge to laugh. That boy was so foolish. "How did you manage that? Did Yuma challenge you to a duel and then panic?"

Max nodded his head and whimpered.

Arishia sighed. "Let's go find your card."

"Would you like us to help?" Kaito asked.

"No, I think we'll be fine," Arishia answered. "You and Haruto can enjoy the festival. I'm sure Yuma is having a ball in the Host Club all by himself."

"If you say so," Kaito said.

"Bye Ari-chan!" Haruto waved as the two famous children went off to search for Max's card. Haruto stared in the direction Arishia and Max disappeared into. "Do you think we cheered her up?"

Kaito stared out into the same direction. "Yeah. I think we did."

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

"Please Kotori!" the twins pleaded.

"For the last time, I'm not apologizing to Arishia!" Kotori yelled.

This adventure with the twins was great at first. Kotori finally got to have a look around the festival and truly appreciate everything without having to fetch supplies or hide from fans. However, things began to take a turn for the worse when IV decided to compare a painting of some white dragon breathing fire to Arishia and her clever words from earlier. Then the devious twin _had_ to entice his brother to support Arishia and then ask Kotori to forgive the cruel Kaiba girl.

"Why not Kotori?" IV asked. "The Friendship Club was bashing the Host Club. Arishia was just trying to protect it."

"But she was being cruel to those girls and the school's sponsor. That isn't right!" Kotori told him.

"We know, but I don't think it was right to insult her by comparing her to her father. You were also insulting him too and I don't think Arishia liked that at all," III said.

"I don't care if she like it or not! It's true. You both know about Kaiba's reputation more than I do," Kotori reminded the boys. "I bet you both can agree that her words would be exactly like something the 'Great Duelist Kaiba Seto' would say."

"Would you stop insulting him?" IV snapped. "Now you're taking this too far."

Kotori sighed. "I know. I'm sorry about that. I'm just still aggravated by that whole ordeal."

"We understand," III told Kotori. "And we're not saying you're wrong about Arishia being cruel to the Friendship Club, but what you said was taking it too far. Could you just apologize for that?"

"That depends, will Arishia be apologizing to the Friendship Club for what she said?" Kotori asked.

III and IV stared at the honors student. "You idiot."

"I don't think she could even apologize sarcastically," IV added.

"Then I'm not saying anything!" Kotori declared.

The twins sighed. They already knew having Arishia apologize to anyone was an impossible task, but they never thought Kotori would be this stubborn. It was awkward enough having those two in the same room for five minutes. That's why III and IV quickly took Kototi away to view the festival. They wouldn't be able to stand it if they had to put up with that feeling for weeks or even the rest of high school if they didn't make up soon.

"Tori-chan!" Haruto called out. He ran up to the honors student with Kaito walking behind him. "What are you doing around here?"

"III and IV decided to show me around the festival like I wanted," Kotori answered. "What about you? Isn't there stuff to do in the Host Club?"

Haruto shook his head. "Max-chan was keeping all the guests busy when we left. I think Yuma-chan is keeping the guests busy now 'cause Max-chan lost his card and he's making Ari-chan help him find it."

"Something says Yuma challenged him to a duel," III said.

"Yeah, but I don't think he wanted to."

IV listened to the conversation, but began to lose interest. His eyes began to wonder around. He looked at the beautiful paintings that hung on each side of the outdoor hallway. They were nice, but art wasn't really his thing. He never understood why people would stare at these things for such a long time. As far as IV was concerned, it was good enough to look at a painting for a few seconds.

Some people would say that the devious twin had no appreciation for the arts, but IV would let that comment slide at the moment as he spotted someone at the end of the hallway. If he had actually admired the picture, he wouldn't have seen the girl pass by.

The rest of the group was too caught up in their conversation to see IV leave (except maybe for Kaito). The devious twins quickly made his way down the hallway and turn right, the way he saw the girl pass. She hadn't gotten too far.

IV smirked. Looks like Shark's precautions were for nothing.

"Hey Rio-chan!"

The girl turned around to see a familiar host waving to her. She waved back as the boy came up to her.

"Thomas, it's been a long time!" Rio said.

"Well it would be sooner if your brother," IV told the girl. "He locked me up in a closet the other day."

Rio giggled. "I know. I ran into Arishia during school when the Host Club was advertising."

"That reminds me, I never apologized to Kotori about getting her debt raised," IV thought aloud. "I called her and Michael while I was locked up to get me out. Your brother wasn't very happy about them ruining the bindings."

Rio rolled her eyes. "I swear, Ryoga needs to loosen up sometimes."

"Really? Maybe you should take your own advice. You're still in your school uniform!"

IV smirked as Rio blushed. Even if she was in that white, sleeveless top with a blue collar, matching skirt along with high grey stockings, and brown shoes, the girl was still adorable. The blush made it all the better.

"Shut up!" Rio snapped. "Maybe you should look more professional? Don't you have a club to attend to?"

"Hey, I look very professional!" IV defended. He was very glad not to be in his uniform. Every time this day came around IV took advantage of it and wore whatever was there. This year his outfit was a white, long sleeved dress shirt and dark pants.

"You call tucking in your shirt professional?" Rio challenged, taking a step closer and causing IV to take a step back just as she planned. "Maybe you'd look better if you were some suspenders."

IV grimaced. He hadn't worn suspenders since he was a kid. "I'd rather not."

Rio took and step back and crossed her arms. "You better improve your outfit tomorrow, or else I'm gonna have to fix it. I bet Michael looks better than you today."

IV rolled his eyes. In his opinion, Michael looked somewhat ridiculous, or at least out of place. IV didn't have anything against his family's custom outfits, but he'd never where that thing unless he was going somewhere important.

"I'll where a vest tomorrow, okay?" IV told Rio.

The girl smiled. "Now that wasn't hard! You know, you just gave me an idea of what Ryoga will be wearing."

IV chuckled. Whatever Rio had planned, her brother was going to wear that outfit or way or another.

"Now what do we have here?"

Rio and IV turned to be greeted by Arishia and Max, who was frantically searching for his missing card.

"I don't think Ryoga would be too happy about this. You might end up raising Kotori's debt some more _Thomas_," Arishia said.

"Hey, what's with the first names here?" IV asked jokingly.

"Nothing really. I just don't want you and Kotori to be enemies. She's already moody from earlier."

"No kidding, Michael and I have been trying to get her to apologize forever. She's being so stubborn." IV laughed. "She wants you to apologize to the Friendship Club before she says anything."

Arishia looked at IV blankly. "That idiot."

"Yes yes, the cute green-haired cross-dresser doesn't know who she's talking to," Max interrupted. "Now, can you stop talking and help me find my card? I don't want to have to duel my Dad again to get another one."

"You know, if you just dueled Yuma in the first place you wouldn't be in this situation in the first place," Arishia told Max in an irritated voice.

"We'll help you find your card!" Rio offered. "If you double your numbers, you'll find it twice as fast."

"Thanks, but I think we've-"

"Yes please!" Max shouted as he cut-off Arishia.

"Max!" Arishia shouted.

The boy shrank and panicked as he began explaining himself in English. "I'm sorry Arishia! I need to find my card 'cause I'll never get another one! I beat my Dad completely by chance to get that card. You saw how close I was to losing and that last second move that won me the duel. I had a lucky draw! Please! It doesn't hurt to have help!"

IV blinked. "What did he just say?"

"He's insisting he can't duel," Arishia summarized.

"What? But you're a legend in the dueling world!" IV said.

"No I'm not," Max whined.

"I think he's broken," IV told Arishia.

The Kaiba girl rolled her eyes. "No, you just don't pay attention during English."

IV laughed it off. "It's not like I had a genius teach me another language. You only learn so much in school."

"Max taught me English, and he didn't speak a word of Japanese," Arishia pointed out. She sighed. "Let's go find his stupid card."

Max brightened up. "Arigato Arishia!"

"You fixed him!" IV cheered. "See, all you had to do it be nice!"

"He's screwed, isn't he?" Rio whispered to Max.

Max laughed. "Pretty much."

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Arishia growled. She was not, under any circumstances, a morning person. It didn't matter who woke her up, whether it be her dad or her best friend, but once they disturbed her they would regret it.

However Max was in total panic mode. Even with Rio and IV's help, they could not find his card yesterday. The poor boy's brain couldn't even focus enough to speak in Japanese for more than two or three words. The rest of his speech was an odd Engrish that was either flipping back and forth between the two languages, or just plain English.

Arishia sat on a bench with her "I'm-so-sorry-I-woke-you-up-this-early-please-don' t-kill-me!" strawberry smoothie from Max, along with half a German chocolate cake (it was more like a quarter now). The Kaiba girl decided to allow Max to live for now, but she sure wasn't helping him search for his damn card until it was a few hours past 7 a.m.

Not only was Arishia annoyed by Max, she was annoyed that she hadn't found a song to perform for today. Arishia was currently blaming Max for why she hadn't had the time to find a song. Thankfully, the boy was offering songs as yet another way of apologizing to Arishia for waking her up so early.

"King of Anything?"

"I don't think a lot of people here will know that here."

"Let It Be?"

"Those Friendship Club idiots wouldn't know a good song like that. I need them to be blown away by something-"

"Would you stop trying to impress those guys?" Max snapped.

"I'm not. I'm trying to embarrass them," Arishia told him.

"Really? I can't really tell," Max said. "It sounds like you really want to impress them, but they'll be too proud to admit anything and it'll seem like they're embarrassed."

_He does have a point,_ Arishia thought. "I don't think I'll be able to embarrass them if I don't impress them just a little."

"Then the solution is simple!" Max stood tall as he declared his statement. "You play something fast, but very difficult and unique. I can think of a few songs off the top of my head and they're all covered by the same guy."

Arishia knew Max was right, but she didn't want to do perform one of those songs. This wasn't out of pride. Arishia would listen to what Max had to say and take his advice from time to time. In fact, she was originally going to perform one of the songs Max was referring to.

"What's wrong?" Max asked. "You love Marasy's covers. I'm sure everyone will know any song you chose from that channel."

Arishia sighed and stuck the straw of her smoothie in her mouth. She looked away from Max. She didn't have an answer for why she didn't want to perform one of those covers.

Max, on the other hand, knew why.

"Come on, we'll think of something," Max assured Arishia. "Let's look somewhere else. I don't think my card is here."

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Heartland Academy was now bustling with students. Arishia had abandoned Max for her sheet music in hopes that something interesting would come up and locked herself in the small room of the Host Club. (It so happen to have a piano. The Host Club was originally a music room after all.)

The club was filled with activity. Guests from various schools filled the tables and more were waiting outside the doors. Due to the overflowing amount of guests, each guest had a thirty minute time limit to spend in the Host Club. With nonstop flow of guests, the hosts were scrambling to keep everyone entertained.

_Why are so many girls interested in this club?_ Kotori's thoughts screamed. _We're not even spending that much time with anyone. Why would anyone wait around for a few short minutes with a host?_

Kotori glanced over to the twins.

"IV! Why would you tell them that?" III cried.

"I'm so sorry dear brother. I didn't know it would bother you so much," IV apologized as he held up his brother's face and stood above him. "But your face is just so precious. It's not my fault you've been mistaken as a girl before."

_It can't be them_, Kotori thought. She turned her glance to the Tenjo brothers.

Kaito looked down at his crying younger brother. He held out a piece of caramel to replace the on Haruto dropped. "It's okay Haruto. There's more caramel than just one small piece."

Haruto wiped his tears away and smiled. He jumped up and hugged Kaito. "Thank you Nii-san!"

_More appealing than the twins, but they can't be it. _Kotori looked over to Ryoga.

"I'm sorry ladies, but I'm afraid I have no time to sit down with you," Shark said.

"Can't you spend one minute for us? We won't see you again until next year!" one girl pleaded.

"I wish, but there are others to keep in line. I would hate to see a certain someone ruin the Host Club badly enough that I won't be able to see any of you next year."

The girls went into full-on fangirl mode. Shark was so thoughtful!

_He's not even hosting! Why is he so popular?_ Kotori complained. Finally, she looked over to Yuma.

"You know, I really do wish there were less people here," Yuma told his guests.

"Why is that? Isn't this much business a good thing?" a girl asked.

"Of course, but how can I duel? How can we duel?" He pulled the girl close and stared into her eyes. "It won't be the same. Where's the intimacy of a duel of passion with all these chatty people taking away our moment?"

"We can still have passion with all these people!" the girl insisted.

Yuma chuckled. "You know, I said the same thing, but some people seemed to believe otherwise."

The girl melted in Yuma's arms. How could anyone contain the overflowing passion of this duelist? Why would they lock up his free soul?

Kotori rolled her eyes. _I just don't get it._

"Kotori, the guests at table 6 need refreshments," Ryoga stated. "You're not paying off your debt by staring at us."

"Sorry!" the honors student said. Ryoga was very intimidating when he wanted to be. It seemed like he just wanted all of these guests out of here as badly as she did.

Ryoga stormed into the small room. He needed to get away from the stupid club.

The small room connected to the Host Club was probably some kind of practice room for musicians. As the name tells, the room was fairly small. One wall held the same windows of the actual Host Club while the other three were lined with cabinets and supplies that the hosts had put in. The room was also very purple. Everything seemed to be a subtle shade of purple or dark blue. In fact, the floor was carpeted in some kind of purple-blue mesh.

Although the room wasn't spacious, it was large enough to house a piano with fair room between it and the wall.

Arishia was sitting at the piano bench, her nose in a folder of music with two other large piles on either side of her. Most likely, one pile was the rejections while the other had yet to have been searched through.

The Kaiba girl didn't acknowledge Ryoga as he walked into the room. She sighed and slammed the folder into the rejection pile.

"No luck so far?" Ryoga asked, using anything to get his mind off of the Host Club.

Arishia groaned in response.

"Anything in particular you're looking for?"

"I honestly don't know anymore," Arishia replied. "I wanted something flashy at first, but I can think of several flashy pieces off of the top of my head. I've been rejecting everything."

"Play something," Ryoga said. "It helps me think. Besides, every time I come in here to escape that club I just listen to some music."

Arishia sighed. "I've tried that. I've tried playing. I've tried listening to music. I'm looking through sheet music right now and that's not obviously helping. I don't know what else-"

Ryoga placed his headphones on Arishia. She fell silent as the piano played in her ears. She loved this song. This version was lovely.

Ryoga moved the on speaker off of Arishia's ear. "I know it's a little slow, but I'm sure everyone can appreciate this."

Arishia smiled. "Perfect."

Ryoga smiled in return. "There it is."

Arishia raised a brow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," Ryoga said. "Come on, I need some help in club."

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

"Finally, it's done." Kotori was exhausted as she slumped on a couch.

The Host Club closed down shop so the guests would go to the Talent Show. It was the festival's closing event. Everyone attended the show.

"I don't understand how you guys can do this every year," Kotori said. "I wouldn't be able to do this again even after ten years."

"But it's worth it." Kotori looked up to see Yuma resting against the back of the couch. "We made a lot of people happy today. Isn't that rewarding?"

Kotori's gaze shifted to the ceiling. "If you put it like that, I guess you're right."

"Well if you have some energy left, why don't you make another person smile today?" Rio said as she entered the Host Club.

"Rio-chan is here!" Haruto chimed and ran up to the girl. "Rio-chan! How have you been?"

Rio smiled. "I've been great! The festival has been really cool, but I decided to save the best attraction for last!"

"But of course!" Yuma cheered. "The Host Club will always be the best attraction to any young lady's heart! Welcome Shark's sister! How may we serve you this lovely afternoon?"

"The talent show is actually the last thing I'm going to go to," Rio said, her voice on edge. "And I do have a name you know!"

Yuma chuckled nervously. "I know! I know! Calm down and let's have some fun!"

"You idiot," Shark told Yuma. "She's been in the room for less than five minutes and you've already made her mad. You know I don't like people who upset my sister."

"Come on Shark! Lighten up. We're just messing around!"

"Well look who it is! IV, someone's here for you!" III called.

III walked up to the rest of the group with IV trailing close behind. The devious twin slid past his brother and up to Rio. He took the girl's hand with a smile and stare into her eyes loving.

"Now let's see, what do we have here? Why are you here away from your frozen kingdom my dear queen? Are you here to visit me, your poor savior without a penny to his name?"

"Why the hell would she do that?" Arishia said as she entered the room. "The only reason she'd visit you is to make sure you're actually in uniform today."

"Hey! Quit hating on the vest!" IV told Arishia. He turned back to Rio. "She's been relentless about that all day."

"Why would you say that Arishia?" Shark asked. "Did IV agree to something I didn't know about?"

"These two did have a little run in the other day."

"Arishia-senpai!" IV and Rio shouted.

"When did that happen?" Shark continued.

"Yesterday, right after Haruto and I met up with him, III and Kotori," Kaito said.

"Come on Kaito-senpai! You're not making this easier for me," IV complained.

"No, please go on," Shark insisted. "I'd love to hear this little balcony scene."

"Come on Shark-senpai! Rio-chan just made fun of my outfit and made me wear a vest today! No harm done, see?" IV insisted.

"Rio-_chan_?" Shark repeated. "Wait, you're the reason she hid all of my clothes except for this outfit."

IV gulped. This wasn't going well.

"Hey IV, aren't these the outfits you two wore when Ryoga beat you in the finals for the Asian Duel Champion finals?" Arishia asked.

"Yeah," IV answered tentatively.

Arishia chuckled. "Well you're about to get your ass beat once again in the same clothes as last time."

IV made a girlish noise as he looked toward Shark, his eyes with the intent to tear him apart. IV could feel himself shrinking as the atmosphere began to form a hurricane around him. Right now IV was in the middle of the ocean, leaving him at a great disadvantage.

"Ryoga! Stop bullying Thomas. He's not bothering anyone," Rio defended the poor twin.

"I beg to differ," Ryoga said.

"Alright guys! Break it up. I don't think your sister came here to fight with her big brother," Yuma teased Shark. "So, how can we bring a smile to your face today?"

"I'm sure you guys can think of something," Rio answered.

"What if we locked your brother in a room with-"

"No," Ryoga interrupted with a strict voice. Whoever Arishia was about to suggest would probably end up horribly injured (because killing people is kind of illegal).

"Well how about…"

Kotori zoned out as Arishia offered another torture method. She didn't need to be reminded of the Kaiba girl's cruel mind. Kotori stared out of the window. The sun was beginning to set, painting streaks of orange, red, and purple across the sky. The honors student moved her eyes to the ground to see if any of the students have tried to match the sky's beauty with art of their own. While there was no art on the ground, there was an artist who did not attend Heartland Academy. It seemed like he was still searching for his card.

Kotori slipped out of the Host Club unnoticed and scurried throughout the school. She finally made her away around the school ground to the area right outside of the Host Club windows.

"Are you still searching for your card?" Kotori asked.

Max jumped when he heard Kotori's voice. He spun around with a shocked expression. "Yeah."

He quickly turned back to tree he was searching partly to hide the blush on his face. The other reason he turned his back to Kotori was because he actually found his card. The only problem was getting it without ruining his outfit. However, Max acted like he didn't know where his card was to listen to what Kotori had to say.

"So, why are you out here? Shouldn't you guys start heading toward the auditorium? The Talent Show is starting soon," Max said.

"The Talent Show isn't starting for another two hours," Kotori informed. "I just wanted to get away from the Host Club."

"Why? Arishia sent me a text that Ryoga's sister was there. I think it would be cool to get to know her better. She could put in a good word for you and take away some of that debt."

Kotori sighed. "I doubt that will ever happen."

Max shrugged. "You never know. The Host Club seems to be a place of miracles." He chuckled. "I really think so. I mean, I usually get shot down by any girl I try to flirt with, but all of those girls adored me."

Kotori rolled her eyes. Those girls would be happy if anyone famous flirted with them. Almost every member of the Host Club was a famous duelist after all.

"I don't think it's a place of miracles," Kotori said. Max stopped his false search and stared at Kotori. "The Host Club put me into debt. And even if people have been changed through their, it doesn't work for everyone. Arishia was pretty cold the first day she visited us and yesterday she was awful."

"Well she is known as Blue-Eyes in the dueling arena. Arishia can easily line up fiery words and any small flames of insults are easily taken without a scratch. She really is a dragon at times. I've heard her dad joke that she got that from her mom, but if you ever meet Kisara you'll see that she's the nicest person in the world," Max chattered. "Anyway, Arishia's personality isn't always that caring, but I doubt we would've become friends any other way."

"Why you and Arishia friends?" Kotori asked. "I don't mean to seem rude, but you two are so different. Even if opposites do attract, I can see you being frightened by her as a little kid. And if you weren't, I can see you extending your hand to make a friend and her not excepting it."

Max smiled and looked up to the sky. "I was really scared when I first met Arishia, but I was scared of everyone. Any time I met a new kid I'd either stay by Dad's side the whole time or hide somewhere. The kid would always pry me away from my father or find my hiding place no matter how obvious it was that I wasn't comfortable with the situation. I'd always be scared of those kids when I would see them again.

"However, it was different when I met Arishia. My dad didn't know she was coming to the island, and neither did her dad. Normally, Dad would drag me out with him to meet any kid. But since he didn't know Arishia was coming he didn't bring me out to see her.

"Dad told Arishia where I was and she found me in my hiding place, but she didn't drag me out of it. She waited for me to come out. Eventually I did and even though we didn't speak a word of each other's language, we became best friends. She was the only one to understand how scared I was, that I wasn't ready to say hello."

Kotori was moved. Arishia sounded so different from now, but still the same. She was still defiant and determine, but she was sweet and kind.

Max chuckled as he reminisced. "I'll never forget the smile on her face when I came out. It's been a while since I've seen her that cheery."

"I bet," Kotori said.

"Hey, don't use that tone. Let's try to make amends between you two," Max told Kotori. "You know, even if Arishia doesn't smile that much anymore, I always find that smiles fit her the best."

"What?" Kotori asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, Arishia always smiled as a kid," Max answered. "I'm guessing all the words got to her at some point. You see, I wasn't the only one scared of Arishia. However, whenever she met a new kid they'd take one look at her and start running off. She's been called awful names and compared to her dad in terms of cruelty countless times. She never gave those kids a second chance of being a friend and treated them with that same coldness every time they would meet. Over time, Arishia just stopped smiling."

Kotori grimaced. She felt awful for insulting Arishia yesterday. Would she find it in her heart to forgive Kotori? Did the honors student even deserve it?

"Relax, you have one thing all those kids don't have," Max said. "Arishia actually liked you to the point that she would convince Ryoga into not adding interest to your debt almost every day. Apologize and let time heal."

Kotori's eyes widened. Would it really be that easy? How could a small apology work against Arishia Kaiba? Insults that would hurt any person had no effect on her. What chance would an apology of the same or greater magnitude stand against that girl?

"Max Pegasus!"

The boy jumped and slammed into the tree. It shook just enough to allow his card to fall from the branches and float onto the ground. Max looked up to see Arishia from the window of the Host Club.

"You've found your card, so I think you should stop messing around and get up here and help me with my damn outfit! If you've forgotten, you haven't given it to me yet! I have to get to auditorium in half an hour for checks!"

"C-coming!" Max shouted.

The window of the Host Club slammed shut.

"Some smile that was," Kotori said with a shocked voice.

Max laughed nervously, shaken by Arishia's words. "Well she is a lot happier here at the Host Club. Haruto seems to be able to put a smile on her face quiet often."

_He's right,_ Kotori thought. _Maybe the Host Club is a place of miracles._

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

The Talent show was always the most anticipated event during the arts festival. Mostly, this was because it was a competition between all of the participating schools. Each school was allowed to have as many students participate in the show as long as they had dance routine, a scene or monologue (original or from a play), or a vocal or instrumental performance.

Heartland Academy's auditorium was very large. After all, it had to accommodate for a large audiences on occasions, like this, throughout the year. The space was regularly rented out by professional companies to stage their productions.

The auditorium had a regal feel. The carpets and seat cushions were a deep red. The arms of the chairs closest to the isles followed and intricate molding with a nice gold finish. The orchestra pit followed the same color scheme. Each individual chair for its members had matching cushions, like the ones for the guests, and golden frame work.

The stage itself was a work of art. If you manipulated the curtains correctly, it could be as endless as the ocean or small enough for an infant to feel like an adult.

Max and Kotori were very impressed, having never been in the auditorium before. The hosts and Rio brushed it off easily since they've seen this view countless time. They all found seats quickly before the rest of the hall filled up.

Yuma sat next to Kotori, naturally. One reason was to keep those nasty twins away from his little girl (however the only one he should actually worry about was just asking Shark to beat him up as he sat next to Rio). The other reason was to ask a question.

"Hey Kotori," Yuma began. "Are you okay?"

Kotori raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"Well you were really worked up yesterday and we had you bouncing all over the place today. I just wanted to make sure you weren't in some kind of distress," Yuma said.

The honors student smiled. "Don't worry at all. I'm fine."

"By the way, why were you so worked up when Arishia insulted the Friendship Club?"

Kotori sighed. This was bound to come around at some point. "You see, my mom went to Gardner's Academy for Girls when she was in high school and she was part of the Friendship Club too. Arishia was attacking something that meant a lot to my mom. I couldn't just stand there and let her have her way."

Yuma blinked in shock. _Her mom went there?_

"Kotori," the King spoke. "If that school meant so much to your mom, and since you obviously want to be like her, why didn't you go to Gardner's Academy? I'm sure they wouldn't turn someone like you away."

Kotori opened her mouth, but the lights dimmed and the MC walked onto stage. He quickly announced the first act and the show began.

The acts in the show were very impressive, but that was to Kotori's standards. The rest of the students thought this was average compared to every other show they've been to. This was, after all, the arts festival. The students performing knew a few things about actual talent.

"Up next we have a lovely group of ladies all the way from Gardner's Academy for Girls!" The MC announced. "Give it up for the Friendship Club!"

"I wonder how good they actually are," Max though aloud.

Kotori glanced over to the boy, who sat on the other side of her. His face was blank as he stared onto the empty stage. Was he waiting for something over-the-top to match the reputation of the Friendship Club? Or was he simply bored with all of the acts?

Either way, Max was waiting for the act to begin. He wanted to see what this club was made of. If their ego matched their performance quality, there shouldn't be one flaw Max could pick up on. It should be just like a professional performance.

Cathy and Rebecca, dressed in men's clothing and masks, tip toed on stage with their backs facing each other. The low strings of the orchestra plucked their strings every so often until the girls bumped into each other on center stage.

They screamed and loudly whispered to each other.

"Monsieur Firmin!"

"Monsieur André!"

"Masquerade from the Phantom of the Opera," Rio said brightly. "It's been so long since I've seen this. Ryoga, we should go to the theater next time they perform it!"

"Sure, I'll have Kotori go with you," Ryoga answered.

"Ryoga!"

"Shut up. They're performing."

The performers danced about on stage as the orchestra played along beautifully. Alexis, playing the male lead, broke through the crowd along with another girl playing the female lead. They shared the moment between their characters and the song continued.

Suddenly the music turned dark and the Phantom of the Opera emerged from behind the rest of the cast. The performers turned around and the stage lights faded to black.

The crowd cheered for the Friendship Club, but it seemed like the club's fan club covered all of the cheers from everyone else.

"Wow! That was really good!" Kotori commented.

"The singing was pretty great, but those three girls basically overshadowed the rest of the cast. Their voices were nice, but this song is for the cast, not a trio," Max critiqued. "It also bothered me how they put all of their worst dancers in the back. Sure, the best are always in the front for a high school performance, but it's like the people back there had no clue what they were doing."

"Don't be so harsh. They did their best," Kotori said.

Max blushed. "Sorry! It's just that the Friendship Club had a lot of arrogance to them. It annoys me when people can't live up to the name they give themselves."

Kotori was ready to reply, but was once again cut off by the MC. She didn't manage to pick up on all of the flaws Max mention and all of the others he probably had, but she understood Max's point.

A few more acts went on and off the stage almost unnoticed. Many people in the theater were just waiting for the next act that could top the Friendship Club.

"Alright, let's hear it one more time for Ami and Yumi!" the MC shouted. "Now, all of you dueling fans are in for a shock." The boy glanced to around to make sure the coast was clear and then loudly whispered into the microphone. "We got a Kaiba back there and I didn't know she had talent outside of dueling!" The MC spoke up again. "Give it up for Heartland Academy's very own Kaiba Arishia!"

Cheers broke out throughout the auditorium along with mummers wondering if Max Pegasus was lurking somewhere in the audience.

"Why would people be wondering if you're here?" Kotori asked Max.

"Well Max and Arishia are kind of a thing," III said.

"W-what? But I thought-"

"Not a couple kind of thing you idiot," IV interrupted. "They're always seen together in public. It's just like how you never see a duelist who doesn't have both cards from Industrial Illusions and a Duel Disk from Kaiba Corp."

"Are those the only companies that sell those things?" Kotori sarcastically asked.

"So you understand," the twins said.

Kotori's face showed that she still didn't understand. The world of fame and business was a strange one indeed. However the curtains opened on stage before Kotori could ask anything else.

A grand piano sat center stage with Arishia standing next to the bench. Max did a lovely job with the Kaiba girl's outfit. The lovely dark dress he put together seemed to blend into some invisible water at the ends. The dress was held up with two straps tied into thin bows that fell on her shoulders artistically. The only other element to the outfit was the shoes. They were flat sandals that laced up to Arishia's knees. The finishing touch was the two high pony tails Arishia's hair was tied up into.

Arishia gave a small bow to the audience and took her place at the piano.

Softly, she hit the keys on the piano to play a simple melody. The notes were dressed up with quick ornaments as the song progressed. Gradually, the music gained depth and emotion. The notes delicately left behind the extra sound and disappeared, but softly returned with complexity and a stronger sense of feeling.

The audience was silent. No one seemed to be able to take their eyes off of this performance. The Kaiba girl played with such wonder and finesse.

Suddenly, sound poured out of the piano. The notes reverberated throughout the auditorium and caught the attention to any ear that found the intensity of this piece. The sound would die away and return with the same strength.

The climax of the song came through. Sound continuously flowed as Arishia played the notes with a pure intensity of emotion and sincerity. Finally, the song came back to a simple melody. The notes were gently drawn out from the piano with a decrescendo in the sound, but it still retained the same beauty.

For a moment, the auditorium was filled with pure silence. In the next moment the crowd erupted with applause and cheers and whistles for Arishia. People began rising from their seats. It was a standing ovation.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

"And Heartland Academy takes the trophy!" III cheered.

"Take that Friendship Club!" IV shouted.

The Host Club and their special guests chattered on about Arishia's performance as they made their way back to their room. It was a complete hit and the only act to get a standing ovation.

The twins danced around Arishia as she carried the golden trophy. It was nice to have an actual trophy. Every other school just got a participation medal. It was quite the slap in the face for the more prideful schools.

Max laughed at the twins antics as Arishia threatened to hit them with the trophy. "She found the right song," he said to himself with a smile. Max knew why Arishia had so much trouble trying to find a song. They were all meaningless to her. Even if they were impressive, Arishia didn't feel any emotion behind the music. "I honestly didn't think of Deep Sea Girl in that context."

"What do you mean?" Kotori asked.

Max turned back. He didn't know anyone was listening. "Well you know the song, right?" Kotori nodded. "As you probably know, it's about a girl finding her true colors by falling in love and in return she helps a boy find his true colors. In a way, the Host Club helped Arishia find her true colors." Max looked over to the club and smiled. "And I think Arishia helps bring out the best in some of them. I wonder how she managed to think of that song."

"You know, I think you're right," Kotori told Max. "I didn't know anyone in the Host Club before this year, but I've been told that some of them have come out of their shells this year. The twins did at least."

Max smiled at Kotori. "But that's because of you. I think you've helped out the Host Club this year a lot more than you might think."

Kotori looked at Max in confusion which just made Max chuckle.

"Like you said, you didn't know any of the hosts until this year. If they've changed at all of course you wouldn't know," Max said. "Come on. We're falling behind."

The two jogged up to catch up with the rest of the group. Max jumped to Arishia's side and Rio approached the boy.

"Max, you did a wonderful job with that outfit!" Rio complimented. "I thought you didn't know what song Arishia-senpai was going to perform."

Max chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "I didn't at first, but after Arishia told me I made some major modifications to the outfit."

"He's simply one hell of a designer," Arishia said.

The group laughed and continued to chatter on. Yuma stepped back to be side by side with Kotori. He tapped on the honors student's shoulder to get her attention.

"You didn't get to finish my question back there," the King began. "Why did you choose Heartland Academy over Gardner Academy?"

Kotori smiled contently and looked up to the sky. "Gardner Academy called out to my mom when she decided to attend school there. The school didn't speak to me the same way it spoke to my mom, but Heartland did. It was somewhere I wanted to be. And just like Mom, I worked my way up to the places I wanted to go."

Yuma smiled at Kotori and looked into the sky hoping to see the same vision Kotori saw. "That's the right way to live life. I'm glad you decided to be like your mom without being a copy." Kotori looked up to Yuma. "If you were, I wouldn't have been lucky enough to have you in my life."

Kotori smiled as a faint streak of blush swept across her face. Even if Yuma had his moments as an absolute idiot, he still would know all of the right words to say. As always, Kotori's thoughtful moment was broken by the usual ruckus of the Host Club.

"What did you just say to her?" Ryoga shouted.

"I just wanted to know if Rio wanted to hang out with my family next weekend! We're having a picnic and I was just inviting her along!" IV quickly defended.

"Kaito, aren't we invited to the Arclight's picnic?" Haruto asked his brother.

"Yeah," Kaito answered. "Perhaps everyone should come along to keep this guy in order. It would give Chris a nice break."

"Sure! Of course! Just please don't let Shark-senpai kill me!" IV pleaded.

"Then it's decided!" Yuma declared, causing everyone to stop in their tracks. "Hosts, prepare for an Arclight picnic!"

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*. *.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

A/N: This was so late… But it was really long again.

First, let's get some of these songs out of the way. Doki Doki Waku Waku is Honey's character song from Ouran Highschool Host Club. The Moonlight Sonata is by Beethoven (the third movement is pretty popular). Bad Apple is by Touhou. King of Anything is by Sara Bareilles. Let it Be is by the Beatles. The channel with the cover songs is Marasy8. He does cover songs of Vocaloid music, as well as a few other things. Lastly, the song Arishia played is Deep Sea Girl by Hatsune Miku. It's the piano version of the song, which is slowed down. You can find all of these on YouTube if your heart desires.

With all that out of the way, once again, I'm sorry that this was pretty late. However I've seemed to make it really long. I'm hoping the length makes up for time.

When I started this story we didn't know that Rio and Shark were twins. In another chapter (I think it's chapter 4) I give the story about Rio in the fire at the middle school, but Shark is in highschool. I originally thought Rio was going to be a year or two younger than Shark instead of the younger twin. In short, Rio and Shark are two years apart for this story.

Also, the uniforms for Gardner's Academy are the school uniform from the original Yugioh anime and the middle school uniforms are the same as the Yugioh Zexal anime.

On an unrelated note, I'm excited for 39 of Zexal II because III is going to be in it! I've been waiting for the whole Arclight family since the new opening and ending was put in!

I hope you all enjoyed!


End file.
